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THE  ASSOCIATION  SECRETARYSHIP 


THE    ASSOCIATION 
SECRETARYSHIP 


C.  K.  OBER 

fi 


ASSOCIATION   PRESS 

124  East  28th  Street,  New  York 
1918 


^VllCM> 

.  O  3 


r. 


k  1  to 


Copyright,  19)8,  by 

Thb  International  Committee  of 

Young  Men's  Christian  Associations 


CONTENTS 


PAOB 

I.    Origin  op  the  Secretaryship  .   .  1 

n.    Growth  of  the  Secretaryship    .  14 

III.  Functions  OF  the  Secretaryship  .  22 

IV.  Specialization  Within  the  Secre- 

taryship    38 

V.  Relations  OF  the  Secretaryship  .  46 

VI.  Status  of  the  Secretaryship  .  .  55 

VII.  Compensations  of  the  Secretary- 
ship    62 

VlII.  Preparation  for  the  Secretary- 
ship    72 

IX.  Future  of  the  Secretaryship.  .  85 

X.  How  to  Enter  the  Secretaryship  92 


389764 


CHAPTER  I 
ORIGIN  OF  THE  SECRETARYSHIP 

The  Young  Men's  Christian  Associa- 
tion is  one  of  the  latest  of  the  successive 
great  movements  in  church  history,  by 
which  Christianity  has  adapted  itself  to 
changed  conditions  in  society.  It  is  also 
one  of  the  earliest  of  the  great  interde- 
nominational movements,  in  which  Chris- 
tianity has  united  for  a  common  task,  too 
great  for  any  single  denomination.  When 
the  fountains  of  the  great  deep  in  the 
industrial  and  social  world  were  broken 
up  and  the  modem  trend  of  the  world's 
population  cityward  began,  the  instinct 
of  self-preservation  in  home,  church,  and 
community  created  the  Young  Men's 
Christian  Association. 

The  Association  Secretaryship  is  the 

executive    office    of    the    Young    Men's 

Christian  Association.    It  is  a  life  calling 

or  profession  for  men  capable,  adapted, 

1 


•2' '    ASSOCIATION  SECRETARYSHIP 

and  qualified.  It  is  generally  recognized 
as  a  specialization  in  Christian  work  and 
social  engineering,  and  within  the  general 
scheme  of  the  Christian  ministry. 

A  "secretary,"  from  the  Latin  secretum 
(secret),  was  originally  a  confidential  clerk 
in  private  or  public  service,  corresponding 
to  the  modern  stenographer  or  "private 
secretary." 

As  responsibilities  increased,  the  "sec- 
retary" seems  to  have  proven  himself 
equal  to  the  situation,  for  we  find  him 
in  the  position  of  the  executive,  with 
responsibility  and  initiative,  as  leader 
and  administrator  of  men  and  affairs. 
"The  man  who  knows"  becomes  the  man 
who  not  only  knows  but  does.  This 
evolution  of  the  secretary  from  clerk  to 
executive  is  described  in  the  historical 
sketch  of  the  development  of  the  Secre- 
taryship of  State,  in  the  Encyclopedia 
Britannica: 

Secretary  of  State,  in  England,  is  the 
designation  of  certain  important  members 
of  the  administration.    The  ancient  Eng- 


ORIGIN  8 

Hsh  monarchs  were  always  attended  by  a 
learned  ecclesiastic,  known  at  first  as 
their  clerk,  and  afterwards  as  secretary, 
who  conducted  the  royal  correspondence; 
but  it  was  not  until  the  end  of  the  reign 
of  Queen  Elizabeth  that  these  function- 
aries were  called  secretaries  of  state.  Up- 
on the  direction  of  public  affairs  passing 
from  the  privy  council  to  the  cabinet, 
after  1688  the  secretaries  of  state  began 
to  assume  those  high  duties  which  now 
render  their  office  one  of  the  most  influ- 
ential of  an  administration.  .  .  . 

There  are  now  five  principal  secretaries 
of  state,  four  of  whom,  with  their  political 
under-secretaries,  occupy  seats  in  the 
House  of  Commons.  One  of  these  secre- 
taries of  state  is  always  a  member  of  the 
House  of  Lords.  The  secretaries  of  state 
are  the  only  authorized  channels  through 
which  the  royal  pleasure  is  signified  to 
any  part  of  the  body  politic,  and  the  coun- 
ter-signature of  one  of  them  is  necessary 
to  give  authority  to  the  sign  manual. 
The  secretaries  of  state  constitute  but 
one  oflSce,  and  are  coordinate  in  rank  and 
equal  in  authority.  Each  is  competent  in 
general  to  execute  any  part  of  the  duties  of 
the  secretary  of  state,  the  division  of  duties 
being  a  mere  matter  of  arrangement. 


4        ASSOCIATION  SECRETARYSHIP 

In  the  United  States  the  "secretary  of 
state"  is  a  member  of  the  executive,  who 
deals  with  foreign  affairs,  and  who,  in 
the  event  of  a  vacancy  in  the  office  of 
President,  is  next  in  succession  after  the 
vice-president.  The  title  of  "secretary" 
— "of  the  treasury,"  "of  war,"  etc., — is 
used  for  some  other  members  of  the  ex- 
ecutive. In  various  states  there  is  an 
executive  officer  called  "secretary  of 
state." 

In  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Associa- 
tion, the  Secretaryship,  although  an  evo- 
lution, as  in  the  Secretaryship  of  State, 
was  not  an  afterthought,  but  appears  to 
have  been  a  part  of  the  original  concep- 
tion of  the  Association  work. 

The  London  Association,  in  the  first 
year  of  its  existence  (1844-1845),  em- 
ployed Mr.  T.  H.  Tarlton  as  "Secretary 
and  Missionary. "  In  1850,  an  "  Assistant 
Secretary,"  Mr.  William  Edwyn  Shipton, 
was  employed,  who,  in  1856,  succeeded 
Mr.  Tarlton  as  "Secretary"  of  the  Lon- 
don Association,  continuing  in  this  posi- 
tion for  twenty-three  years.  Mr.  Ship- 
ton  was  a  man  of  ability  and  education. 


ORIGIN  5 

with  a  virile  and  attractive  personality. 
He  proved  to  be  an  efficient  leader  and 
executive,  under  whose  administration 
the  London  Association  not  only  attained 
a  conspicuous  development  in  its  home 
field,  but  suggested  and  promoted  the 
organization  of  Associations  in  other 
cities  in  Great  Britain,  on  the  Continent 
of  Europe,  and  throughout  the  world. 

The  Boston  Association,  organized  in 
December,  1851,  secured  a  "Librarian" 
in  1852,  which  position  was  filled  in  suc- 
cession by  four  men  in  six  years,  1852- 
1858.  In  1858,  the  Association  secured 
as  "Librarian"  Mr.  L.  P.  Rowland,  who 
soon  after  became  known  as  "  Correspond- 
ing Secretary,"  continuing  in  the  service 
of  the  Boston  Association  for  fifteen 
years.  Mr.  Rowland  was  a  man  of  genial 
personality,  active,  evangelistic,  and  an 
enthusiastic  promoter  of  the  Association 
idea,  not  only  in  Boston  but  throughout 
New  England.  Chiefly  under  the  advo- 
cacy of  Mr.  Rowland,  Associations  sprung 
into  existence  during  this  period  in  more 
than  one  hundred  and  fifty  cities  and 


a       ASSOCIATION  SECRETARYSHIP 

towns  in  the  State  of  Massachusetts  alone. 

The  Philadelphia  Association  employed 
Mr.  John  Wanamaker  as  its  first  "Secre- 
tary" for  the  two  years  from  the  latter 
part  of  1858  to  the  latter  part  of  1860, 
when  he  resigned  to  take  up  his  remark- 
able business  career.  Mr.  Wanamaker 
has  been  a  constant  friend  and  contributor 
to  the  Association  work,  being  the  largest 
individual  donor  to  the  Association  equip- 
ment in  his  home  city  of  Philadelphia, 
and  erecting  at  his  own  expense  four  mod- 
ern Association  buildings  in  the  capital 
cities  of  India,  China,  Korea,  and  Japan. 

The  Chicago  Association  secured  Mr. 
Dwight  L.  Moody  as  "Librarian  and 
Agent,"  and  later  as  "President,"  from 
1865  to  1869.  It  was  in  this  position 
that  Mr.  Moody's  remarkable  gift  as  an 
evangelist  first  found  opportunity  for  ex- 
pression, and  he  always  regarded  the 
Association  as  the  agency  which,  under 
God,  had  developed  him  for  Christian 
work.  Mr.  Moody  continued  throughout 
his  life  a  strong  believer  in  the  Association 
Secretaryship,    encouraging    not    a    few 


ORIGIN  7 

very  able  men  to  enter  it  as  their  life 
work. 

Up  to  this  time,  the  Association  Secre- 
taryship had  attracted  strong  men,  but 
with  the  exception  of  Mr.  Shipton  of  the 
London  Association,  had  not  been  able  to 
hold  them.  The  Association  itself  was 
then  a  comparatively  small  affair — new, 
mideveloped,  without  precedent,  without 
property,  and  without  the  record  of 
achievement  which  now  appeals  to  the 
strongest  type  of  men,  with  the  assurance 
of  a  life  career  commensurate  with  their 
powers.  The  Association  was  a  great 
idea,  but  it  had  not  materialized.  In 
fact,  it  was  lacking  in  the  very  element 
which  could  be  supplied  only  by  the 
Secretaryship.  The  Association  of  vol- 
unteer workers  demanded  the  specialist; 
the  organization  waited  for  the  organizer. 
In  response  to  this  demand  there  had 
come  a  succession  of  great  pioneer  Secre- 
taries, but  the  typical  Secretary  had  not 
yet  appeared.  The  Secretaryship  was 
still  but  little  more  than  a  promising  ex- 
periment. 


8       ASSOCIATION  SECRETARYSHIP 

There  came,  however,  into  the  Sec- 
retaryship a  man  who  was  preeminently 
adapted  to  its  requirements,  and  who 
was  ready  to  give  his  life  to  it.  Robert 
R.  McBurney,  becoming  "Librarian"  of 
the  New  York  City  Association  in  1862, 
known  as  "Corresponding  Secretary"  in 
1865,  later  as  "General  Secretary," 
created  for  himself  in  that  position 
a  life  work  of  thirty-six  years,  in  which 
he  built  a  model  City  Association  and 
demonstrated  the  Association  Secretary- 
ship as  a  great  calling  and  profession. 
The  type  of  Association  work  developed 
by  McBumey  in  New  York  City  has  be- 
come the  model  for  the  cities  of  three 
continents,  and,  since  McBurney  blazed 
the  trail,  it  has  not  been  difficult  for 
young  men  of  promise,  looking  for  a  great 
life  work,  to  find  the  path  into  the  Asso- 
ciation Secretaryship. 

The  Yoimg  Men's  Christian  Associa- 
tion, however,  is  more  than  a  local  enter- 
prise. The  local  Associations  have  fed- 
erated, and  employ  (in  1916)  more  than 
five  hundred  of  their  4,600  Secretaries  for 


ORIGIN  0 

the  work  of  International,  National, 
State,  and  County  Committees,  as  pro- 
moters and  multipliers  of  Association 
work  in  the  Association's  home  and 
foreign  fields. 

The  origin  of  the  Association  Secretary- 
ship for  this  federated  work  was  in  a  mis- 
sionary impulse,  at  the  International 
Convention  of  the  Associations  in  Detroit 
in  1868.  The  Union  Pacific  Railroad  was 
at  that  time  under  construction  west- 
ward from  Omaha,  employing  thousands 
of  men  living  in  its  construction  camps, 
exposed  to  peculiar  temptation,  and  cut 
off  from  social  and  religious  privileges. 

The  Convention  authorized  and  em- 
powered its  Executive  Committee  to 
send  a  Secretary  to  these  men,  to  minis- 
ter to  them  in  the  name  of  the  Associa- 
tions. The  Committee  secured  for  this 
work  Robert  Weidensall,  a  college  grad- 
uate who  had  been  in  the  Engineering 
Corps  through  the  Civil  War,  was  then 
employed  in  the  Union  Pacific  Shops  at 
Omaha,  and  actively  identified  with  the 
work  of  the  Omaha  Association.     The 


10      ASSOCIATION ,  SECRETARYSHIP 

work  in  the  railroad  construction  camps 
proved  temporary,  but  Mr.  Weidensall 
has  continued  with  the  International 
Committee  for  an  unbroken  life  work  of 
remarkable  leadership  and  achievement, 
as  interpreter  and  builder  of  all  forms  of 
local  and  federated  Association  work 
throughout  the  United  States  and  Can- 
ada. 

In  the  following  year  (1869),  the  Inter- 
national Committee  employed  Mr.  Rich- 
ard C.  Morse,  a  college  and  theological 
seminary  graduate,  with  practical  train- 
ing in  religious  journalism,  to  become  the 
editor  of  The  Association  Monthly,  the 
official  organ  at  that  time  of  the  Associa- 
tions of  North  America.  This  enterprise, 
like  Mr.  Weidensall's  work  in  the  con- 
struction camps,  proving  temporary,  Mr. 
Morse  was  called  to  the  position  of  Gen- 
eral Secretary  of  the  International  Com- 
mittee, which  position  he  filled  with  great 
ability  and  statesmanship  for  forty-five 
years,  imtil  succeeded  by  Dr.  John  R. 
Mott,  in  1915. 

In  this  year  of   1869,  in  which  Mr. 


ORIGIN  11 

Morse  entered  the  work  of  the  Interna- 
tional Committee,  Mr.  McBumey,  after 
seven  years  of  preliminary  work,  saw  the 
New  York  Association  established  in  its 
magnificent  new  building,  the  first  of  its 
kind  in  existence  and  the  first  to  provide 
for  the  fourfold  work  of  the  Association — 
a  building  which  for  a  quarter  of  a  cen- 
tury was  to  be  an  inspiration  and  a  model 
for  similar  Association  buildings  through- 
out the  world.  Mr.  McBurney  was  a 
member  of  the  International  Committee 
and  for  thirty  years,  until  his  death,  in 
1898,  worked  in  closest  fellowship  and 
cooperation  with  Mr.  Morse  and  Mr. 
Weidensall  in  building  up  the  Association 
movement  in  both  its  home  and  foreign 
fields. 

It  is  significant  that  these  three  great 
Secretaries,  practically  the  first  to  find  a 
life  work  in  the  Association  Secretary- 
ship, should  come  to  a  position  of  leader- 
ship in  the  Association  movement  in 
1869 — the  year  in  which  the  "Portland 
Test  of  Active  Membership"  was  adopted, 
determining  the  evangelical  character  of 


12     ASSOCIATION  SECRETARYSHIP 

the  Associations  and  their  relation  to  the 
Church.  It  was  twenty-five  years  from 
the  initial  meeting  in  the  upper  room  in 
London  to  the  model  Association  in  the 
splendid  building  in  New  York  City,  the 
federated  Associations  of  North  America, 
and  the  three  Secretaries  whose  lives  were 
dedicated  to  the  planting  of  the  Associa- 
tion, as  they  had  come  to  see  it,  in  the 
cities  of  a  continent,  and  outward  to  the 
strategic  cities  of  the  world. 

The  Association  had  found  itself  and 
the  Association  Secretaryship  had  ar- 
rived. 

1.  What  social  phenomenon  led  to  the 

organization  of  the  .Young  Men's 
Christian  Association? 

2.  What  is  the  Young  Men's  Christian 

Association  Secretaryship? 

3.  What  is  the  origin  and  historic  de- 

velopment of  the  term  "  Secretary  "  ? 

4.  At  what  stage  of  the  Association's 

growth  was  the  Secretaryship  in- 
stituted? 


ORIGIN  IS 

5.  What  titles  have  at  various  times 

been  used  to  designate  the  Asso- 
ciation employed  officer? 

6.  Name   some   early   Secretaries   who 

later  became  distinguished  men. 

7.  Who  first  demonstrated  the  Young 

Men's  Christian  Association  Secre- 
taryship as  a  life  calling? 

8.  Relate  the  circumstances  of  the  se- 

curing of  the  first  traveling  Secre- 
tary. 

9.  Who  was  the  third  member  of  this 

first  group  of  three  great  pioneer 
Secretaries? 
10.  What  was  the  first  important  ma- 
terial  expression   of   McBurney's 
genius? 


CHAPTER  II 
GROWTH  OF  THE  SECRETARYSHIP 

By  the  time  that  Shipton,  McBurney, 
Weidensall,  and  Morse  had  discovered 
the  Secretaryship,  in  1869,  the  Associa- 
tion was  twenty-five  years  old.  In  this 
brief  period,  the  Association  movement 
had  estabHshed  itself  in  the  principal 
cities  of  Europe  and  America,  had  planned 
and  erected  a  typical  building  in  New 
York  City,  at  a  cost  of  half  a  million 
dollars,  to  provide  for  and  give  expression 
to  its  many-sided  work,  and  had  attracted 
to  its  Secretaryship  at  least  four  excep- 
tionally strong  men. 

These  men  had  seen  the  vision  of  a  new 
calling,  a  great  profession.  In  their  minds, 
the  Association  Secretary  was  more  than 
a  private  secretary,  more  even  than  a 
trusted  executive.  He  was  the  promoter, 
builder,  organizer  of  a  working  Associa- 
tion.   He  was  the  man  who  knows  and 


GROWTH  15 

does,  but  he  was  also,  and  chiefly,  the 
man  whose  knowledge  and  executive 
ability  were  consecrated  to  the  object  of 
making  the  Association  know  and  do  its 
work  through  the  associated  eflForts  of  its 
members. 

The  growth  of  the  Association  move- 
ment is  the  outworking  of  this  idea.  If 
these  efficient  men  and  their  associates 
and  successors  in  the  Secretaryship  had 
undertaken  to  do  the  work  of  the  Asso- 
ciations, the  Secretaries  might  have  in- 
creased, but  the  Associations  would  have 
decreased  and  possibly  would  have  dis- 
appeared. The  fact  of  the  Young  Men's 
Christian  Association  and  its  place  and 
opportunity  in  the  life  and  work  of  the 
twentieth  century  is  a  living  witness  to 
the  greatness  of  their  conception  of  the 
Secretaryship. 

Starting  with  and  holding  fast  this 
conception  of  its  mission,  or  "high  call- 
ing," the  Association  Secretaryship  has 
experienced  a  phenomenal  development. 

1.  Growth  in  Numbers,  The  number  of 
positions  for  Association  Secretaries  iu 


16     ASSOCIATION  SECRETARYSHIP 

North  America  has  increased  as  follows: 

5  Id  1866 

108  in  1876 

517  in  1886 
1,311  in  1896 
2,490  in  1906 
4,642  in  1916 

^.  Growth  in  Variety,  The  beginnings 
and  growth  of  the  Secretaryship  in  the 
different  groups  of  Associations  and  de- 
partments of  Association  work  may  be 
seen  from  the  following  table: 

Association  Secretaryships   1866  1876  1886   1896  1906  1916 

General  Secretaryships 

City  Associations 6      68    273    571     626    760 

Railroad  Associations 55     100    219     231 

Student  Associations 1       18      87     129 

Army  and  Navy  Associa- 
tions        32      27 

Department  Secretaryships 

Physical 35    220    898    680 

Boys' 18     111     341 

Educational 10      38      68 

Religious 22      67 

Other  Depts.  (Memb.,  Emp., 

Social,  Financial) 8        7      63    229 

Asst.  Secretaryships  (Gen- 
eral and  Departmental)     ...       24    111     272    626  1501 
County  and  Asst.  Coimty 

Secretaryships 5      33     108 

State  and  Asst.  State  Sec- 
retaryships      ...       11      23      55    106    204 

International  Secretaryships 

(Home) ...         5      13      28      63     121 

International  Secretaryships 

(Foreign) 7      66     199 

Special  Secretaryships , 97 


GROWTH  17 

5.  Growth  in  the  Dimensions  of  tlie  Task. 
The  task  or  responsibility  of  the  Associa- 
tion Secretaryship  is  four  times  greater 
than  it  was  twenty  years  ago.  This  may 
be  seen  by  the  following  survey  of  the 
growth  of  one  hundred  City  Associations 
and  the  growth  of  Association  religious 
work. 


100  Selected  City  Associations 

Annual 
1896        1916  Percentage 
of  Growth 

Average  Membership 741  1,982          8.4 

«    Value  of  Buildings $99,120  $328,473  12 

«    Secretarial  Staff 3  11  IS 

«  Educational  Dept.  (students)  151  548  13 

"    Secretarial  Executives 1  4  15 

«  Boys'  Dept.  (membership) . .  106  472  17 

«    Current  Expenses $8,013  $52,551  28 

An*  Associations  (except  student) 

Annual 
1900  1916     Percentage 
of  Growth 
Attendance  all  Religious  Meet- 
ings  1,917,018  7,234,134         17 

United  with  Churches 1,322         8,385        33 

Students  in  Bible  Classes 13,676     115,593        46 

Attendance,    Shop    Meetings 

and  Bible  Classes 75,000  2,044,946      164 

Note:  On  account  of  changes  in  the  questionnaire  by  which 
religious  work  statistics  were  gathered,  exact  information  con- 
cerning several  items  of  Association  religious  work  is  not 
available  for  the  years  1896-1899.  These  statistics  are.  ther^ 
fore,  given  for  sixteen  rather  than  for  twenty  years, 


18    ASSOCIATION  SECRETARYSHIP 

^.  Growth  in  Term  of  Service.  The  Asso- 
ciation Secretaryship,  from  the  time  of  the 
definition  of  the  fourfold  work  of  the 
Association  and  its  relation  to  the  Church, 
has  attracted  and  held  the  strongest  type 
of  men.  Edwyn  Shipton  entered  the 
Secretaryship  of  the  London  Association 
in  1850  and  continued  for  twenty-three 
years;  McBurney  of  New  York  City, 
Sinclair  of  Dayton,  See  of  Brooklyn,  and 
Shurtleff  of  Cleveland  remained  in  the 
Secretaryship  until  their  death,  after  an 
average  service  of  more  than  twenty-eight 
years. 

Budge  of  Montreal,  Morriss  of  Balti- 
more, Whitford  of  Buffalo,  Messer  of 
Chicago,  McCoy  of  San  Francisco,  and 
John  R.  Mott  of  the  International  Com- 
mittee, have  already  seen  an  average  of 
thirty-seven  years  of  secretarial  service, 
and  Morse  and  Weidensall,  entering  the 
Secretaryship  in  1868-'69,  still  continue 
after  a  service  of  forty-eight  and  forty- 
nine  years. 

"But,"  some  one  will  say,  "these  are 
exceptional  men. "    This  is  true,  and  the 


GROWTH  19 

life  work  argument  for  the  Secretaryship 
is  all  the  stronger  for  that;  for  only  a  great 
and  growing  work  can  satisfy  and  hold 
such  men. 

The  Association  Secretaryship  is  an 
exceptional  life  work  opportunity  for 
exceptional  men.  While  the  number  of 
major  secretarial  positions  in  the  North 
American  Associations  is  three  times 
greater  than  it  was  twenty  years  ago,  the 
number  of  life  work  opportunities  for 
exceptional  men  is  more  than  ten  times 
greater.  This  is  the  principal  reason  why 
so  many  men  do  not  find  a  life  work  in  the 
Secretaryship.  The  life  work  is  there, 
but  it  is  for  the  men  who  are  equal  to  it. 

Of  the  4,401  Association  Secretaries 
and  Assistants  in  1916,  1,018  had  served 
for  less  than  two  years.  The  records  of 
the  Secretarial  Bureau  show  that  56  per 
cent  of  the  men  leaving  Association  work 
do  so  before  they  have  completed  two 
years  of  service.  Considering,  therefore, 
this  initial  two  years  as  an  investigation 
or  testing  period  in  the  Secretaryship, 
there  were    3,383   men  in  1916  with  a 


20     ASSOCIATION  SECRETARYSHIP 

record  of  two  or  more  years  in  the  As- 
sociation Secretaryship,  with  the  follow- 
ing record  of  service: 

1,270  (38  per  cent),  2  to  5  years. 

1,054  (31  per  cent),  5  to  10  years. 

1,059  (31  per  cent),  10  to  47  years. 

This  number  of  1,059  Secretaries  and 
Assistants  who  had  served  for  ten  years 
or  more  is  48  per  cent  of  the  2,201  men 
in  Association  work  in  1906,  the  beginning 
of  the  ten-year  period.  Of  these  1,059 
Secretaries,  519  had  served  from  15  to 
47  years,  an  average  of  22  years. 

1.  What  was  the  conception  of  the  Sec- 

retaryship, in  the  opinion  of  the 
early  Association  leaders? 

2.  What  bearing  had  their  conception 

of  the  Secretaryship  on  the  interest 
of  the  members  in  the  work? 

3.  How  many  employed  officers  were 

there   in  America  in  the  decades 
from  1866  to  1916? 

4.  Name  ten  branches  of  the  Secretary- 

ship, indicating  its  growth  in  vari- 
ety of  specialization. 


GROWTH  «1 

5.  To  what  extent  was  the  Secretary's 

task  bigger  in  1916  than  it  was 
twenty  years  before? 

6.  What  relation  has  the  growth  of  the 

Association  in  dimensions  and 
equipment  had  to  the  religious 
activities  for  which  the  Secretary 
is  responsible? 

7.  What  Secretaries  have  remained  long 

in  the  service? 

8.  What  qualities  of  character  contribute 

to  length  of  secretarial  service? 

9.  During  which  years  of  their  service 

do  the  largest  number  of  Secre- 
taries drop  out? 
10.  What  is  it  in  the  Young  Men's 
Christian  Association  that  has  made 
the  Secretaryship  increasingly  and 
most  strongly  appeal  to  strong  men 
as  a  life  calling? 


CHAPTER  III 

FUNCTIONS  OF  THE  SECRETARY- 
SHIP 

The  Association  Secretaryship  possesses 
functions  distinctive  as  the  Association 
itself,  and  varied  as  its  many-sided  work. 
To  describe  the  functions  of  the  Associa- 
tion Secretaryship,  therefore,  it  is  neces- 
sary to  note  the  character  and  work  of  the 
Association. 

The  most  characteristic  thing  in  the 
Young  Men's  Christian  Association  is  the 
Association  itself;  and  the  best  interpre- 
tation of  the  Association  is  doubtless  that 
of  "The  Paris  Basis,"  adopted  by  the 
first  World's  Conference  of  the  Associa- 
tion, in  Paris,  in  1855,  and  reaffirmed  by 
the  World's  Conference,  in  Paris,  in  1905. 

According  to  the  Paris  Basis,  "The 
Young  Men's  Christian  Associations  seek 
to  unite  those  young  men  who,  regarding 
Jesus  Christ  as  their  God  and  Saviour, 

22 


FUNCTIONS  23 

according  to  the  Holy  Scriptures,  desire 
to  be  his  disciples  in  their  doctrine  and  in 
their  life,  and  to  associate  their  efforts 
for  the  extension  of  his  kingdom  among 
young  men."  The  executive  officer  of 
such  an  Association,  seeking  to  unite  such 
young  men  with  such  a  purpose  regarding 
their  own  development,  and  to  lead  them 
to  associate  their  efforts  for  such  an  ob- 
jective, has  been  compelled  to  develop 
and  exercise  functions  commensurate  with 
the  importance  and  greatness  of  his  task. 
1.  Religious  Leadership).  The  Associa- 
tion is  primarily  a  religious  organization. 
Its  program  of  religious  work  is  not  merely 
one  of  many  departments,  but  pervades 
all  departments.  It  is  in  fact,  as  in  name, 
a  '^Christian''  Association.  It  is  the  re- 
ligious appeal  that  rallies  to  the  member- 
ship of  the  Association  the  men  and  boys 
with  capacity  for  imselfish  service,  and 
it  is  the  religious  motive  that  prompts 
and  makes  effective  their  associated  "ef- 
forts. "  All  of  the  great  Association  Secre- 
taries have  been  religious  leaders,  and  the 
strongest  element  in  their  call  to  the 


24      ASSOCIATION  SECRETARYSHIP 

Association  Secretaryship  has  been  the 
appeal  of  the  opportunity  to  exercise 
their  gift  of  rehgious  leadership  with  men 
and  boys.  Their  expectation  was  not 
disappointed  by  the  Association,  for  the 
response  to  their  religious  leadership  has 
given  to  the  world  one  of  the  greatest 
religious  movements  of  modern  times, 
and  the  religious  eflBciency  of  any  par- 
ticular Association  or  department  has 
been  in  direct  proportion  to  the  religious 
leadership  of  the  Secretary. 

The  Association  Secretary  is  not  merely 
a  religious  leader  within  the  Association, 
but  also  in  his  relation  to  the  churches, 
as  the  executive  of  the  principal  inter- 
denominational agency  in  the  commu- 
nity. This  gives  him  an  exceptional  op- 
portunity to  help  all  the  churches  and  to 
promote  the  spirit  and  practice  of  Chris- 
tian unity,  which  is  one  of  the  greatest 
things  in  the  program  of  Christianity. 

2.  Friendship,  The  Association  is  not 
merely  a  religious  organization.  It  is 
fundamentally  a  brotherhood,  an  expres- 
sion and  a  promoter  of  friendship  among 


FUNCTIONS  25 

young  men  and  boys.  It  ** seeks  to  unite'* 
young  men  both  for  fellowship  and  for 
service  with  other  young  men.  The  Sec- 
retary or  executive  of  such  a  friendship 
movement  should  be  a  friendly  type  of 
man,  one  who  makes  and  holds  friends, 
who  is  interested  in  young  men  and  boys 
for  their  own  sake,  whose  influence  is 
contagious  throughout  the  Association 
membership,  who  wins  men  to  himself 
and  to  the  work  of  the  Association.  The 
Association  also  lends  itself  in  a  remark- 
able way  to  the  promotion  of  friendship, 
through  the  breadth  and  unselfishness 
of  its  program  and  by  affording  almost 
unlimited  opportunities  for  close  and 
frequent  personal  contact  and  cooperation 
with  young  men  and  boys.  The  Secre- 
tary, therefore,  may  become  the  friend 
of  multitudes  of  young  men,  including 
men  of  promise,  who  are  tempted  to  hide 
their  talent,  or  to  use  it  selfishly;  and, 
having  won  the  friendship  of  these  men, 
he  may  capitalize  and  utilize  their  com- 
panionship as  a  practically  irresistible 
force  in  the  winning  of  other  young  men. 


26     ASSOCIATION  SECRETARYSHIP 

3.  Organization,  One  in  seven  of  the 
Association  members  in  North  America  is 
a  member  of  a  working  committee;  and 
the  Associations  employ  a  staff  of  about 
six  Secretaries  for  every  one  thousand 
members. 

The  committeemen  and  secretarial  asso- 
ciates in  each  Association  are  to  each 
General  and  Department  Secretary  what 
the  fighting  men  and  junior  oflBcers  are 
to  the  commanding  officer  in  an  army 
division,  and  their  efficiency  is  in  pro- 
portion to  their  organization.  The  Sec- 
retary is  an  organizer  as  contrasted  with 
an  individualist.  He  is  working  on  Mr. 
Moody's  idea  of  setting  ten  men  at  work, 
rather  than  trying  to  do  the  work  of  ten 
men,  even  if  that  were  possible. 

On  this  principle  of  organization,  the 
Secretary  selects  and  coaches  the  Asso- 
ciation members,  and  they  go  out  to 
reach  the  entire  young  man  and  boy 
population  of  a  city,  at  a  thousand  points 
of  contact.  In  the  process,  workers  are 
developed  and  leaders  discovered,  any 
one  of  whom,  with  encouragement  and 


FUNCTIONS  «7 

training,  may  become  a  greater  leader 
than  the  Secretary  himself. 

4.  Coaching  and  Training,  The  Secre- 
tary needs  to  give  special  attention  to  the 
coaching  and  training  of  the  younger 
Secretaries,  Assistants,  and  committee 
members,  not  only  that  the  work  of  the 
Association  may  be  efficient,  but  that 
these  potential  leaders  may  be  developed 
and  take  their  places  of  leadership  in 
Association,  church,  and  community  serv- 
ice. The  kind  of  work  Christ  did  in  the 
training  of  the  twelve,  the  Secretary  may 
do  with  many  times  twelve  men;  and 
scarcely  any  other  work  that  he  can  do 
will  be  more  important.  To  some  of 
these  men  special  attention  will  be  given, 
and  one  or  more  may  be  in  the  place  of 
understudy  to  the  Secretary,  in  training 
for  positions  of  largest  responsibility. 
The  Secretary  proceeds  on  the  principle 
that  the  surest  way  to  make  one's  work 
immortal  is  to  find  and  develop  the  men 
who  are  capable  of  reproducing  and  per- 
petuating it.  The  great  apostle  had  this 
in  mind  when  he  wrote  to  his  understudy, 


28     ASSOCIATION  SECRETARYSHIP 

Timothy,  "the  things  which  thou  hast 
heard  from  me  among  many  witnesses, 
the  same  commit  thou  to  faithful  men, 
who  shall  be  able  to  teach  others  also." 
(II  Tim.  2:2.) 

5,  Promotion,  The  work  of  an  Asso- 
ciation is  progressive,  expanding,  almost 
daily  confronting  new  situations,  and 
every  department  is  constantly  projecting 
many  and  varied  activities.  In  a  certain 
City  Association,  more  than  six  hundred 
events  were  scheduled  in  a  single  week. 
With  so  much  work  to  be  done,  and  Secre- 
taries and  committeemen  willing  to  do 
it,  little  or  nothing  would  be  done,  how- 
ever, without  secretarial  initiative.  If  the 
work  is  to  move  forward,  some  man  must 
promote  it.  The  Secretary,  therefore, 
must  be  a  promoter,  a  man  of  vision  and 
initiative,  seeing  the  right  thing  to  be 
done,  getting  it  started  in  the  right  way, 
and  getting  the  right  men  to  become 
responsible  for  it  and  to  see  it  through  to 
a  successful  conclusion. 

6.  Executive  Direction.  The  work  of 
an  Association,  however,  is  much  more 


FUNCTIONS  29 

than  a  succession  of  new  undertakings; 
it  has  unity,  character,  and  continuity. 
The  Association  Secretary,  therefore,  is 
more  than  a  promoter:  he  is  a  continu- 
ous executive,  like  the  captain  on  the 
bridge  or  the  engineer  with  his  hand  on 
the  lever,  determining  the  direction  of  the 
movement,  and  making  its  schedules 
effective.  As  the  executive  officer  of  the 
"Board  of  Directors"  or  the  "Executive 
Committee,"  the  Secretary  represents 
the  guiding  and  motive  power  of  the  Asso- 
ciation, and  is  expected  to  take  initiative 
and  responsibility  for  the  execution  in 
detail  of  the  general  policies  and  plans 
determined  by  Directors  or  Executive 
Committee.  In  all  doubtful,  or  especially 
important,  matters,  he  is  expected,  of 
course,  to  take  counsel  with  and  secure 
the  cooperation  of  the  President  of  the 
Association,  or  Chairman  of  the  Execu- 
tive Committee,  who  share  with  the 
Secretary  the  executive  function  of  the 
Association. 

The  position  of  "Chief  Executive"  is 
the    highest    office    in    the   gift   of    the 


30     ASSOCIATION  SECRETARYSHIP 

American  people ;  thus,  even  if  the  execu- 
tive were  the  only  function  of  the  Secre- 
taryship, the  position  would  be  one  in 
which  men  of  the  highest  order  of  ability 
would  find  field  and  scope  for  their  largest 
and  best  capacities. 

7.  Administration.  Every  Secretary  is 
entrusted  with  money,  many  with  the  use 
of  valuable  property,  and  not  a  few  with 
the  administration  of  large  business  and 
financial  undertakings,  for  the  prosecu- 
tion of  their  work.  In  the  City  Associa- 
tion Secretaryship,  it  is  almost  inevitable 
that  a  successful  Secretary,  in  the  course 
of  his  experience,  will  find  it  necessary  to 
take  the  lead  in  one  or  more  new  building 
enterprises,  involving  the  raising  of  a 
large  amount  of  money,  the  planning  and 
supervising  of  the  erection  of  the  building, 
and  the  working  out  of  the  new  and  larger 
business  and  financial  problems  necessi- 
tated by  the  larger  work  which  the  new 
building  makes  possible.  It  is  absolutely 
essential,  therefore,  that  a  Secretary 
should  have  good  business  sense,  sane 
ideas   about   money,    and    an   accurate 


FUNCTIONS  SI 

method  of  accounting.  For  lack  of  these 
elementary  principles  of  business  and 
finance,  more  Secretaries  have  failed  than 
from  any  other  cause. 

8,  Education.  The  Young  Men's  Chris- 
tian Association  is  a  standard  educational 
agency,  conducting  three  main  lines  of 
educational  work,  and  training  its  secre- 
tarial and  committee  force,  which  is  in 
itself  an  educational  process  of  the  first 
importance.  The  Association  has  entered 
and  is  occupying  a  great  and  needy  field 
in  the  educational  world,  placing  emphasis 
on  evening  educational  work  for  employed 
young  men;  providing  scientific  physical 
education  and  athletics  on  a  clean  sport 
and  character-building  basis;  and  develop- 
ing its  system  of  religious  education  on 
the  plan  of  trained  volunteer  leadership. 

The  executive  officer  of  such  an  educa- 
tional organization  should  not  only  be  a 
man  of  liberal  education,  with  the  student 
habit,  but  he  should  be  familiar  with  the 
principles  and  methods  of  modem  educa- 
tion. 

9.  Social    Engineering.      The    Young 


32      ASSOCIATION  SECRETARYSHIP 

Men's  Christian  Association  in  many 
cities  is  the  most  attractive  social  center 
for  young  men  and  boys  in  the  com- 
munity, conducts  many  programs  of 
social  work  within  the  Association  build- 
ing, and  seeks  also  to  serve  socially  the 
young  men  and  boys  of  the  entire  com- 
munity. The  Association,  therefore, 
comes  into  relation  with  all  the  social 
conditions,  forces,  and  agencies  aflFecting 
the  lives  of  the  young  men  and  boys  of 
the  community;  and  in  many  cities  the 
Association  Secretary  is  the  best  known, 
best  informed,  and  most  consulted  man  in 
the  community,  on  matters  of  community 
welfare. 

The  Association  also  includes  in  its 
activities  departments  and  programs  of 
social  service,  educates  its  membership  on 
social  problems,  and  develops  and  sets 
at  work  a  force  of  social  workers  who 
work  not  only  within  the  Association 
but  also  with  other  agencies  for  com- 
munity betterment.  The  Secretary  of 
such  an  Association  must  be  not  only  a 
religious  leader  but  a  social  engineer. 


FUNCTIONS  83 

10,  Community  and  Problem  Diagnosis. 
In  order  that  the  Association  may  plan 
and  prosecute  its  many-sided  work  with 
reference  to  the  real  conditions  and  needs 
of  young  men,  the  Secretary  must  make 
frequent  surveys  of  his  field.  New  prob- 
lems present  themselves  constantly,  and 
the  Secretary  must  know  how  to  "size 
up  the  situation."  He  must  be  "a  good 
diagnostician." 

The  writer  was  in  the  office  of  the  Gen- 
eral Secretary  of  a  City  Association  when 
the  Boys'  Work  Secretary  entered  and 
remarked  to  the  General  Secretary,  "I 
am  up  against  it."  "Well,"  replied  the 
General  Secretary,  "if  is  up  to  you,  and 
you  will  be  up  against  it  every  day." 

The  chief  was  not  lacking  in  sympathy; 
he  was  quite  willing  to  help,  but  he  could 
not  do  his  associate's  work  for  him.  This 
particular  Boys'  Work  Secretary  sur- 
rendered to  his  problems  too  easily,  and 
soon  after  dropped  out  of  Association 
work — chiefly  because  he  lacked  the 
capacity  for  diagnosis,  with  the  ability  to 
prescribe  and  apply  the  proper  remedy. 


34     ASSOCIATION  SECRETARYSHIP 

11.  Vocational  Guidance,  To  guide  a 
fit  man  into  his  life  work  is  second  only 
in  importance  to  the  winning  of  a  man  to 
Christ,  especially  if  the  man  in  question 
be  guided  into  Christian  work;  then  it 
may  be  vastly  more  important. 

The  scheme  of  the  Association  work, 
in  which  volunteer  workers  are  expected 
to  take  initiative  and  responsibility  as 
committeemen,  develops  leadership  in 
young  men  and  older  boys,  challenges 
capacities  for  unselfish  service  hitherto 
unsuspected  or  unutilized,  and  promotes 
self-discovery.  The  Association's  reli- 
gious work,  Bible  study,  social  service, 
educational,  and  employment  depart- 
ments, also  provide  exceptional  oppor- 
tunities for  vocational  training  and  guid- 
ance. It  is,  therefore,  the  privilege  of  the 
Association  Secretary  frequently  to  coun- 
sel with  young  men  seeking  guidance  on 
this  supremely  important  subject. 

12,  Evangelism,  The  Young  Men's 
Christian  Association  is  not  only  evangel- 
ical, but  evangelistic.  To  relate  young 
men  to  Jesus  Christ  as  Saviour  and  Lord 


FUNCTIONS  85 

has  been  from  the  first,  and  is  still,  the 
major  objective  of  the  Association,  which 
seeks  to  unite  young  men  "for  the  exten- 
sion of  Christ's  Kingdom  among  young 
men."  The  methods  of  evangelism  used 
by  the  Association  include  whatever  Asso- 
ciation experience  has  shown  to  be  most 
effective  with  young  men.  In  the  earlier 
periods  of  the  Association's  work,  the 
gospel  meeting,  the  evangelistic  Bible 
class,  and  personal  work  were  given  spe- 
cial emphasis.  Recently,  these  methods 
have  been  supplemented  by  "the  inter- 
view method,"  which  has  been  adopted 
in  many  Associations.  In  some  Associa- 
tions, every  member,  not  already  a  pro- 
fessing or  active  Christian,  is  related  in 
unhurried  personal  interview,  or  series  of 
interviews,  to  some  prepared  Christian 
business  or  professional  man  or  Secretary, 
for  conference  on  his  life  problems,  includ- 
ing his  relationship  to  Christ  and  the 
Church. 

In  addition  to  regular  organized  meth- 
ods and  programs  of  evangelism,  the  daily 
casual  contact  with  young  men  and  boys 


36      ASSOCIATION  SECRETARYSHIP 

seeking  counsel  furnishes  the  Secretary  of 
an  Association  what  may  be  his  greatest 
opportunity  to  win  men  to  the  Christian 
life.  An  Association  with  such  a  tradition 
and  opportunity  of  evangelism  requires 
for  its  executive  a  man  with  a  correspond- 
ing master  passion.  He  need  not  be  a 
professional  evangelist,  or  even  an  effec- 
tive public  speaker,  but  the  compelling 
reason  for  his  choice  of  the  Secretaryship 
as  his  life  work  should  be  that  he  has 
heard  and  heeded  the  Master's  call: 
"Come  ye  after  me,  and  I  will  make  you 
to  become  a  fisher  of  men. " 

1.  Judging  from  the  Paris  Basis  what  is 

the  most  distinctive  or  charac- 
teristic thing  in  the  Young  Men's 
Christian  Association? 

2.  Upon  what  special  phase  of  the  Sec- 

retary's leadership  does  the  fruit- 
fulness  of  the  Association  depend? 

3.  What  relation  does  a  friendly  per- 

sonality bear  to  secretarial  success? 

4.  What  is  the  numerical  relation  of 

Secretaries  to  members  and  what 


FUNCTIONS  87 

bearing  does  this  have  on  the  pos- 
sible work  of  the  Association? 

5.  What  satisfaction  can  a  man  with  a 

genius  for  organization  find  in  the 
Young  Men's  Christian  Associa- 
tion? 

6.  Upon  what  quality  in  a  Secretary  will 

the  continuity  and  multiplication 
of  his  calling  depend? 

7.  Show    the    difference    between    the 

functions  of  "organization,"  "pro- 
motion," "executive  direction," 
and  "administration." 

8.  What  four  lines  of  educational  work 

must  a  Secretary  conduct? 

9.  What  tasks  does  a  Secretary  under- 

take as  a  social  engineer? 

10.  Discuss  the  Secretary's  opportunity 

in  vocational  guidance. 

11.  What  phase  of  evangelism  will  most 

frequently  find  expression  in  the 
typical  Secretary? 

12.  Which  of  these  twelve  functions  of 

the  Secretaryship  can  be  dispensed 
with?  What  essential  functions 
have  been  omitted? 


CHAPTER  IV 

SPECIALIZATION  WITHIN  THE 
SECRETARYSHIP 

The  functions  of  the  Association  Sec- 
retaryship, combined  as  they  are  in  one 
oflBce,  make  this  office  one  of  the  greatest 
of  the  great  altruistic  callings  or  profes- 
sions. In  whatever  type  of  Association, 
or  department  of  Association  work,  any 
particular  Secretary  may  find  his  field, 
his  position  is  one  of  executive  leadership 
in  a  cooperative  Christian  work  with 
young  men  and  boys,  for  the  promotion 
of  their  Christian  character  and  all-round 
efficiency,  and  for  the  enlisting  of  their 
efiForts  for  the  extension  of  Christ's  King- 
dom among  other  young  men  and  boys. 
This  is  the  common  denominator  of  the 
Secretaryship,  and  is  due  to  the  unique 
character,  method,  and  opportunity  of 
the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association. 

The  Secretaryship,  however,  has  vari- 

38 


SPECIALIZATION  89 

ety  as  well  as  unity  and,  like  the  pro- 
fessions of  law,  medicine,  and  engineer- 
ing, offers  not  merely  one  life  work  oppor- 
tunity, but  a  choice  of  several  specializa- 
tions within  the  profession.  There  is  a 
choice  of  at  least  fifteen  major  life  work 
opportunities  within  the  Association  Sec- 
retaryship, any  one  of  which  is  an  un- 
crowded  profession  for  men  of  ability 
and  adaptation  to  its  requirements. 

The  City  Association  was  the  original 
type  of  Association  work,  and  the  City 
General  Secretaryship  the  original  secre- 
tarial office,  called  "General"  on  account 
of  its  responsibilities  being  general  rather 
than  departmental.  With  the  growth  of 
the  local  Association,  "Assistant  Secre- 
taries" were  first  employed;  then  various 
phases  of  the  Association's  work,  such  as 
Physical,  Educational,  Boys'  Work,  Em- 
ployment, Membership,  Business,  Bible 
Study,  and  Evangelism,  developed  into 
departments,  and  demanded  Secretaries 
for  their  special  executive  leadership. 

As  men  of  ability  and  vision  specialized 
on  the  problems,  fields,  and  work  of  their 


40     ASSOCIATION  SECRETARYSHIP 

respective  departments,  fields  have  been 
explored,  problems  have  been  solved — or 
well  started  on  their  way  to  solution — 
principles  have  been  discovered,  new 
sciences  of  Association  work  have  been 
created,  and  the  office  of  Department 
Secretary  in  each  of  the  major  Association 
fields  or  departments  has  become  a  "pro- 
fession" as  well  as  a  "calling." 

The  development  of  a  group  of  special 
executives  within  a  local  Association  has 
not  robbed  the  General  Secretary  of  his 
executive  function,  but  has  greatly  re- 
enforced  and  extended  its  application. 
He  is  no  longer  the  sole  Executive  Secre- 
tary of  the  Association,  but  its  chief 
executive.  Any  one  of  half  a  dozen  de- 
partments of  the  work  in  many  Associa- 
tions is  now  using  and  serving  more  young 
men  and  boys,  and  more  effectively,  than 
were  used  and  served  by  that  entire 
Association  a  few  years  ago.  To  initiate 
and  coordinate  the  general  strategy  of 
such  an  Association,  a  much  stronger  and 
more  resourceful  man  is  demanded  in  the 
office  of  General  Secretary  than  would 


SPECIALIZATION  41 

have  satisfied  the  situation  in  the  "day  of 
small  tilings." 

Specialization  within  the  Secretary- 
ship, however,  has  developed  not  only  in 
departments  of  an  Association's  work  but 
in  types  of  Associations.  The  city  has  its 
problems,  so  great  in  fact  that  some  have 
thought  that  "the  problem  of  Christian- 
ity is  the  problem  of  the  city";  and  the 
city  type  of  Association  has  arisen  to 
help  solve  this  problem.  But  there  is 
also  a  "problem  of  the  country,"  and  in 
the  rural  field,  including  the  villages  and 
towns,  the  majority  of  the  young  men 
and  boys  of  the  nation  as  a  whole  are  to 
be  found.  In  response,  therefore,  to  "the 
challenge  of  the  country,"  the  rural  or 
County  Association  Work  has  been 
evolved,  on  the  County  unit  or  plan  of 
organization.  The  County  Work  oper- 
ates, as  a  rule,  without  equipment,  and 
demands  the  strongest  and  most  versatile 
men  as  Secretaries,  since  their  work  must 
be  done  with  fewer  accessories,  a  smaller 
secretarial  staff,  more  limited  resources, 
and  under  more  diflScult  conditions. 


42     ASSOCIATION  SECRETARYSHIP 

Association  Work  with  Boys,  beginning 
as  a  minor,  then  developing  into  a  major 
department  of  the  City  Association,  has 
now  become  a  distinct  type  or  division  of 
Association  work  in  city,  country,  school, 
and  factory,  in  and  out  of  Association 
buildings,  and  calls  for  as  many  kinds  of 
specialization  within  the  Association  Boys' 
Work  Secretaryship  as  there  are  special 
fields,  problems,  or  conditions  in  boy 
life. 

Other  types  of  Association  work  with 
large  and  growing  groups  of  Associations 
have  been  developed,  demanding  Secre- 
taries with  special  interest  and  adapta- 
tion, to  meet  the  needs  of  young  men  in 
college  and  university  life,  in  railroad 
service,  in  the  great  industrial  fields,  in 
the  army  and  navy,  and  among  colored 
men.  Several  hundred  Secretaries  also 
specialize  on  the  general  or  supervisory  as 
distinguished  from  the  local  work  of  the 
Associations,  in  the  service  of  State  organ- 
izations, the  Canadian  National  Council, 
and  the  International  Committee,  in  its 
home  and  foreign  departments. 


SPECIALIZATION  48 

A  group  of  these  Secretaries,  in  the 
Secretarial  Bureau  of  the  International 
Committee,  and  others  connected  with 
the  Association  Colleges  and  Association 
Summer  Schools,  are  specializing  on  the 
recruiting  and  training  of  men  for  the 
Association  Secretaryship. 

Others  specialize  on  editorial  work, 
publication,  publicity,  financial  and  mem- 
bership campaigns,  the  planning,  con- 
struction, and  equipment  of  Association 
buildings,  business  eflSciency,  business 
administration,  Bible  study  and  evangel- 
ism, and  other  tasks  in  which  their  special 
qualifications  or  interests  enable  them  to 
render  their  greatest  service  to  young  men 
and  boys,  or  to  the  upbuilding,  develop- 
ment, and  efliciency  of  the  Association 
movement  in  city  or  country,  in  intensive 
or  extensive  work,  or  upon  its  home  or 
foreign  fields. 

The  chapter  on  specialization  within 
the  Association  Secretaryship  is  not  com- 
plete, and  cannot  now  be  completed. 
New  departments  of  the  Association 
work  will  be  developed;  new  fields  will 


44      ASSOCIATION  SECRETARYSHIP 

open  to  the  Association  Movement;  and 
new  tasks  will  be  undertaken,  as  the 
Association  moves  forward  In  the  ful- 
filling of  Its  ever  expanding  mission. 

These  unsolved  problems,  unoccupied 
fields,  and  unassumed  tasks  Invite  men 
of  vision,  the  pioneer  spirit,  and  a 
genius  for  original  work.  To  such  a  man 
will  be  given  the  opportunity  for  crea- 
tive work  and  the  reward  of  great  achieve- 
ment in  the  service  of  "his  own  genera- 
tion by  the  will  of  God,"  In  the  exten- 
sion of  the  Kingdom  of  Christ  among 
young  men  and  boys  throughout  the 
world. 


1.  In  what  respect  are  all  Secretaries  at 

work  on  the  same  task.^* 

2.  Show  how  the  Secretaryship  Is  open 

to  a  variety  of  types  of  men. 

3.  What  was  the  original  type  of  Secre- 

taryship.^ 

4.  Of  "profession"  and  "calling"  which 

do  you  consider  the  more  appropri- 
ate term,  and  why? 


SPECIALIZATION  45 

5.  How  far  has    the  splitting    of  the 

secretarial  function  robbed  the 
General  Secretary  of  his  calling? 

6.  Make  two  lists,  one  of  the  types  of 

departmental  Secretaries,  and  one 
of  the  types  of  general  Secretaries, 
such  as  city  and  rural.  How  many 
types  in  all? 

7.  Describe  the  type  of  Secretary  who 

can  work  without  equipment. 
What  is  his  chief  asset? 

8.  Why  do  men  consider  the  Boys'  Work 

Secretaryship  as  having  a  great 
future? 

9.  Name  some  special  developments  in 

the  Secretaryship. 
10.  How  much  further  will  specialization 
within  the  Secretaryship  proceed? 


CHAPTER  V 
RELATIONS  OF  THE  SECRETARYSHIP 

Clearly  to  recognize  and  faithfully  to 
observe  relationships  are  the  marks  of  a 
gentleman,  a  statesman,  and  a  Christian. 
They  are  also  among  the  attributes  of  a 
successful  Association  Secretary.  The 
relationships  of  the  Association  Secretary- 
ship are  an  outgrowth  and  recognition  of 
principles  of  the  Association  and  of  reli- 
gious leadership  in  Association  and  com- 
munity. 

1,  The  Principle  of  the  Association 
Brotherhood.  "The  locusts  have  no  king, 
yet  go  they  forth  all  of  them  by  bands. " 
In  the  Association  Movement  we  have  a 
modern  instance  of  the  phenomenon  of 
organization  without  authority,  which 
attracted  the  attention  of  "the  wise  man" 
so  many  years  ago.  When,  in  1854,  the 
individual  Young  Men's  Christian  Asso- 
ciations in  North  America  afliliated  in 

46 


RELATIONS  47 

International  Convention  and  Commit- 
tee, and  when  in  1866  they  began  the 
creation  of  State  Associations  and  Com- 
mittees, they  yielded  nothing  of  their 
independence  or  local  autonomy  to  these 
so-called  "supervisory  agencies." 

And  yet,  these  International  and  State 
organizations,  and,  later,  the  National 
Council  of  the  Canadian  Associations, 
have  become  remarkably  strong  and  influ- 
ential, in  fact  indispensable  to  the  eflS- 
ciency,  development,  and  extension  of  the 
local  Associations. 

These  great  supervisory  agencies  of  the 
Association  movement,  however,  are  the 
servants,  not  the  masters,  of  the  local 
Associations:  They  exercise  "supervi- 
sion without  authority"  and  provide  ex- 
perts and  prpmoters  for  various  types  and 
departments  of  the  work  of  the  Associa- 
tions. They  also  serve  as  a  clearing-house 
of  ideas  and  representative  agencies  for 
the  carrying  forward  of  important  projects 
for  the  increased  eflSciency  of  the  Associa- 
tions, their  missionary  extension,  and  their 
work  upon  their  home  and  foreign  fields. 


48      ASSOCIATION  SECRETARYSHIP 

The  fundamental  principle  of  the  Asso- 
ciation brotherhood  is  cooperatioriy  the 
strong  bearing  the  burdens  of  the  weak, 
"all  for  each  and  each  for  all."  The 
supervisory  agencies  have  no  "rights"  in 
the  local  Associations  except  by  invita- 
tion and  approval,  and  no  special  "priv- 
ileges" except  the  privilege  of  service. 
The  relationships,  therefore,  between  the 
local  and  the  State  and  International 
Secretaries,  are  those  of  counsel,  coopera- 
tion, and  community  of  interest, 

2.  The  Principle  of  the  Association, 
The  Association  employs  the  Secretary; 
the  Secretary  builds  the  Association;  the 
Association  directors,  members,  and  com- 
mitteemen are  the  Association.  No  Asso- 
ciation can  give  its  Secretary  a  "power 
of  attorney"  to  do  the  work  of  the  Asso- 
ciation, for  in  doing  this  it  would  commit 
Association  suicide.  The  fundamental 
principle  of  the  Association  is  that  the 
responsibility  for  the  work  of  the  Asso- 
ciation rests  with  the  members.  The  re- 
lationships of  the  Association  Secretary- 
ship to  the  Association  members,  direc- 


REL.VTIONS  49 

tors,  and  committeemen,  therefore,  are 
those  of  a  promoter,  organizer,  leader, 
and  executive. 

Here  we  have  a  remarkable  balance  of 
power  between  the  Association  "layman" 
and  "professional,"  with  the  layman  in 
the  place  of  authority  and  the  professional 
in  the  place  of  initiative,  influence,  and 
leadership,  each  dependent  on  the  other. 
The  result  is  the  Young  Men's  Christian 
Association,  increasingly  effective  and  in- 
creasingly attractive  to  both  layman  and 
professional. 

3.  The  Principle  of  the  Staff.  In  every 
efficient  athletic  team  there  is  leadership, 
discipline,  coaching,  specialization,  sub- 
ordination of  excessive  individualism  to 
the  rule  or  plan  of  the  game,  and  the 
spirit  of  sacrifice  when  the  other  fellow  is 
in  the  place  of  opportunity.  This  prin- 
ciple of  the  team  is  the  principle  of  the 
secretarial  staff  of  an  Association.  The 
relationships,  therefore,  of  the  members 
of  an  Association  staff  to  each  other  are 
those  of  mutual  appreciatioUy  loyalty y  co- 
ordination^  and  fellowship  in  service. 


50     ASSOCIATION  SECRETARYSHIP 

4.  The  Principle  of  Leadership,  To  be 
a  leader  in  the  Association  is  greater  than 
to  be  an  executive,  for  an  executive  may 
be  mechanical,  but  an  Association  leader 
must  win  the  personal  loyalty  and  the 
spiritual  confidence  of  the  men  who  fol- 
low him.  To  do  this,  he  must  have  char- 
acter, sincerity,  unselfishness,  superior 
ability,  breadth  of  view,  insight,  judg- 
ment, initiative,  and  a  forward  look. 
Possessing  these  elements  of  leadership, 
and  having  recognition  as  a  leader,  the 
relationships  of  the  Secretary  to  the  com- 
mitteemen, officers,  and  staff  of  the  Asso- 
ciation are  those  of  friendship,  consider- 
ationy  consultation,  recognition,  and  sup- 
port. 

A  great  leader  frequently  will  not  ap- 
pear to  be  leading,  so  successful  is  he  in 
putting  others  forward  and  securing  for 
them  recognition  and  support.  He  is 
working  for  permanent  results,  for  the 
upbuilding  of  the  Association  by  develop- 
ing efficiency  and  leadership  in  its  mem- 
bers. He  may  seem  to  decrease,  but  it  is 
in  order  that  they  may  increase  and  the 


RELATIONS  51 

time  will  come  when  He  that  "seeth  in 
secret"  will  reward  him  "openly."  ^ 

5.  Relationships  with  Church  and  Com- 
munity Leaders.  The  great  principle 
enunciated  in  the  "Portland  Test"  of 
active  membership  in  the  Associations  is 
not  the  definition  of  what  constitutes  an 
"evangelical"  church,  but  the  subordina- 
tion of  the  Association  to  the  Church. 
The  Association  is  constitutionally  and 
fundamentally  loyal  to  the  Church.  Evi- 
dently this  loyalty  should  express  itself 
not  merely  in  definition,  but  in  service. 
The  relationship,  therefore,  of  the  As- 
sociation Secretary  to  the  churches  of  his 
community  should  be  that  of  a  servant. 
This,  as  a  rule,  is  true  to  Association 
practice  and  the  principle  is  being  increas- 
ingly worked  out  in  programs  of  co- 
operative work  in  which  the  Association 
Secretaries  help  Church,  Sunday  school 
and  Young  People's  Society  to  solve 
the  problems  of  their  own  young  men 
and  boys  in  their  own  organization  and 
work. 

The  Association,  in  the  working  out  of 


52     ASSOCIATION  SECRETARYSHIP 

such  a  program,  becomes  the  laboratory 
of  the  Church,  and  the  results  of  experi- 
mentation and  achievement  by  Associa- 
tion specialists  in  work  with  young  men 
and  boys  become  the  property  of  the 
Church,  so  far  as  it  can  appropriate  them. 
A  similar  relationship  exists  between  the 
Association  Secretary  and  the  community 
leaders,  particularly  in  the  physical,  ath- 
letic, social,  and  educational  work  of  the 
Associations.  The  development  of  the 
playground  system  and  of  evening  educa- 
tional classes,  now  largely  conducted  un- 
der community  auspices,  as  a  result  of  the 
pioneering  and  promotion  of  Association 
Secretaries,  illustrates  the  practical  out- 
working of  this  principle  of  community 
service  in  the  relationship  of  the  Secre- 
tary to  the  leaders  of  the  community. 

6,  The  Secretary's  Personal  Religious 
Life.  The  personal  religious  life  of  the 
Secretary  has  a  most  important  bearing 
on  the  entire  range  of  his  relationships. 
The  love  that  "envieth  not,  seeketh  not 
its  own,  is  not  easily  provoked,  thinketh 
no  evil,  sufifereth  long  and  is  kind"  makes 


RELATIONS  58 

all  relationships  easy.  The  man  who  has 
this  "most  excellent  way"  of  dealing  with 
others  is  "a  comfortable  man  to  work 
with." 

This  brings  us  to  the  Secretary's  per- 
sonal relationship  to  Jesus  Christ.  Un- 
less the  Secretary  is  a  Christian  of  reality, 
these  relationships  of  the  Secretaryship 
will  hopelessly  involve  him.  He  needs 
the  spirit  of  Christ  to  become  a  leader  of 
men,  as  much  as  he  needs  the  method  of 
Christ  to  become  a  fisher  of  men.  This  is 
not  a  luxury,  but  a  necessity,  otherwise  we 
have  a  "religious  leader"  without  either 
religion  or  a  following.  Does  this  not  ex- 
plain many  failures  in  the  Secretaryship? 

1.  Discuss  the  unique  characteristic  of 

supervision  of  State  and  Inter- 
national Secretaries.  Which  pre- 
dominate, good  or  bad  features, 
and  why.'^ 

2.  How    can    effective    supervision    be 

exercised  with  no  other  relation- 
ships than  "counsel,  cooperation, 
and  community  of  interest"? 


54      ASSOCIATION  SECRETARYSHIP 

3.  Discuss  the  relation  of  the  Secretary 

and  of  the  members  to  the  work 
of  the  Association  and  to  each  other. 

4.  What  quahties  of  character  quaHfy 

a  man  for  Association  leadership? 

5.  What  relationships  within  the  Asso- 

ciation grow  out  of  these  qualities 
in  the  leader? 

6.  What  is  the  relation  of  the  Associa- 

tion to  the  Church? 

7.  To  what  extent  is  the  preservation  of 

these  relationships  dependent  upon 
the  Secretary?  Upon  the  minis- 
ter? 

8.  Should  a  Secretary  help  to  develop 

boys'  work  in  a  church? 

9.  How  far  should  a  Secretary  go  in 

giving  public  night  schools,  play- 
grounds and  other  community  wel- 
fare projects  the  benefit  of  Asso- 
ciation experience  and  his  personal 
cooperation? 
10.  Notice  that  point  about  a  religious 
leader  without  either  religion  or  a 
following.  What  relationship  will 
secure  both  these  essentials? 


CHAPTER  VI 
STATUS  OF  THE  SECRETARYSHIP 

Has  the  Association  Secretaryship  an 
ascertainable  status,  or  ground  for  its 
existence,  for  the  assurance  of  the  man 
who  may  contemplate  his  commitment 
to  it  as  a  life  calling?  Thirty-five  years 
ago,  the  Secretaryship  was  largely  an 
idea,  and  the  man  who  entered  it  at  that 
time  was  obliged  to  claim  by  faith  many 
things  that  men  who  enter  the  Secretary- 
ship today  can  note  and  appraise  as 
evidences  of  the  faith  of  their  predeces- 
sors, and  of  the  greatness  of  the  idea  by 
which  they  were  attracted.  The  Secre- 
taryship of  today  rests  on  an  historic 
basis  and  the  idea  is  reenforced  by  a 
permanent  deposit  of  experience. 

1.  The  history  of  the  Young  Men's 
Christian  Association,  its  well-known 
and  tested  principles,  its  record  of  ac- 
complishment in  many  fields  of  effort,  its 

65 


56     ASSOCIATION  SECRETARYSHIP 

phenomenal  growth,  and  the  demand  for 
its  extension  throughout  the  world — 
these  give  the  Association  Secretaryship 
a  standing  in  the  court  of  pubUc  opinion. 
Wherever  the  Young  Men's  Christian 
Association  is  mentioned  today,  the  Sec- 
retaryship is  understood  to  be  an  indis- 
pensable part  of  the  enterprise,  necessary 
to  its  operations,  as  the  engineer  is  essen- 
tial to  the  running  of  the  engine,  and  the 
Christian  minister  to  the  upbuilding  of 
the  church. 

One  has  but  to  reflect  on  the  place  of 
the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association 
in  modern  Christian  civilization  to  ap- 
pr-eciate  the  significance  of  the  historic 
status  of  the  Secretaryship. 

2.  The  already  great  and  steadily  in- 
creasing investment  in  Association  equip- 
ment in  North  America  (now  aggregating 
$100,000,000)  is  an  evidence  of  the  public 
confidence  in  the  Secretaryship,  as  well  as 
a  trust  committed  to  its  keeping  for  the 
effective  prosecution  of  the  work  for 
which  the  equipment  has  been  provided. 

Business  men  would  not  have  given 


STATUS  57 

largely  to  Association  work  if  it  had  been 
conducted  on  a  purely  voluntary  basis. 
The  Secretaryship  gave  promise  of  stabil- 
ity and  assurance  of  specialization  in  ad- 
ministration. Association  buildings  every- 
where testify  to  the  status  of  the  Secre- 
taryship in  the  judgment,  generosity,  and 
confidence  of  business  men. 

3.  The  recognition  of  the  Association 
by  the  Church  as  an  ally  gives  to  the 
Secretaryship  a  status  similar  to  that  of 
the  Christian  ministry,  while  at  the  same 
time  the  confidence  of  the  general  public 
in  the  Association  as  a  practical  force  in 
the  social  and  economic  life  of  young 
men  and  boys  gives  it  a  place  of  influence 
in  the  community  as  a  social  service 
agency. 

4.  The  Secretaryship  has  a  status  also 
with  the  great  railroad  and  industrial 
corporations  and  with  the  United  States 
Government  in  the  Army  and  Navy  and 
on  the  Canal  Zone,  as  an  indispensable 
welfare  agency  and  a  promoter  of  co- 
operative relations  between  labor  and 
capital,    employer   and   employe.      The 


58      ASSOCIATION  SECRETARYSHIP 

fact  that  the  entire  time  of  more  than  five 
hundred  Secretaries  (1916)  is  given  to 
Association  work  with  railroad,  industrial, 
and  government  employes,  made  possible 
by  corporation  and  government  support, 
gives  emphasis  to  this  corporation  and 
governmental  recognition. 

5.  The  popularity  of  the  Association 
with  young  men  and  boys  and  the  friendly 
way  in  which  it  enters  into  their  recrea- 
tional, athletic,  vocational,  and  religious 
life  and  enlists  them  in  the  prosecution 
of  its  multiform  activities  give  to  the 
Secretaryship  a  status  of  community  of 
interest  with  multitudes  of  men  and  boys, 
unreached  by  other  religious,  social,  and 
educational  agencies. 

6.  The  demonstration  of  the  signifi- 
cance of  the  Association  Secretaryship  in 
the  lives  and  work  of  great  Secretaries, 
known  on  several  continents,  has  given 
the  Secretaryship  a  status  in  the  record 
of  human  achievement  among  the  great 
altruistic  callings.  One  of  America's 
great  business  and  financial  leaders  re- 
turning from  an  extended  trip  to  a  dis- 


STATUS  59 

tant  part  of  the  country,  said  recently, 
"I  met  all  their  great  men,  railroad  men, 
bankers,  business  men,  professional  men, 
but  no  men  impressed  me  more  than  the 
five  leading  Association  Secretaries.  There 
are  no  stronger  men  out  there  and  they 
are  looked  up  to  as  leaders  in  the  larger 
affairs  of  that  section  of  the  country. " 

The  life  service  of  such  men  as  McBur- 
ney,  Weidensall,  Morse,  Budge,  See, 
Shurtleff,  Sinclair,  Messer,  Mott,  and 
many  others  still  living  and  leading  in 
the  Association  Movement  has  given  a 
status  to  and  set  a  standard  for  the  Sec- 
retaryship, that  have  lifted  it  immeasur- 
ably above  the  plane  of  the  commonplace 
and  have  made  the  Associations  and  the 
community  forever  intolerant  of  medi- 
ocrity in  the  Secretaryship. 

7.  The  consideration  of  the  status  of 
the  Secretaryship  would  not  be  complete 
without  reference  to  its  honorable  and 
useful  place  on  the  foreign  mission  field 
among  the  great  missionary  agencies  of 
the  Church.  The  late  Professor  Hender- 
son, then  of  the  Department  of  Sociology 


60     ASSOCIATION  SECRETARYSHIP 

of  the  University  of  Chicago,  returning 
from  a  tour  of  the  world,  said  in  public 
address  that  the  best  expression  of  social 
service  that  he  had  seen  anywhere,  was 
the  regular  work  of  the  Young  Men's 
Christian  Associations  on  the  foreign  field. 
The  Association  Foreign  Work,  in  con- 
centrating on  national  problems,  and  on 
the  developing  of  typical  Association 
work  in  the  political  and  commercial 
capitals  and  the  university  centers  of  the 
non-Christian  and  the  Latin  American 
world,  in  specializing  on  the  most  influ- 
ential and  hitherto  comparatively  inac- 
cessible classes,  and  in  placing  the  em- 
phasis on  native  leadership,  both  volun- 
teer and  secretarial,  has  won  a  status  and 
an  influence  entirely  out  of  proportion 
to  the  number  of  its  se^^^etarial  staff. 

1.  Show    the    difference    between    the 

chances  in  the  Secretaryship  as 
a  life  work  today  and  making 
the  same  choice  thirty-five  years 
ago. 

2.  To  what  does  the  Association  owe 


STATUS  61 

its  standing  in  tlie  court  of  public 
opinion? 

3.  What  relation  has  the  large  Associa- 

tion equipment  to  the  status  of 
the  Secretaryship? 

4.  What  effect  does  the  Association's 

recognition  as  a  church  agency 
and  as  a  social  service  agency  have 
on  the  status  of  the  Secretaryship? 

5.  What  has  the  Association  done  to 

deserve  its  standing  with  large 
employers? 

6.  How  has  the  Association  employed 

officer  demonstrated  his  community 
of  interest  with  all  sorts  of  young 
men  and  boys,  and  what  bearing 
does  this  have  on  the  status  of  the 
Secretaryship? 

7.  What  bearing  has  the  personality  of 

our  leading  Secretaries  had  upon 
the  Association  profession  or  call- 
ing? 

8.  Discuss  the  relation  of  our  foreign 

work  to  the  regard  in  which  Asso- 
ciation leadership  is  held. 


CHAPTER  VII 

COMPENSATIONS  OF  THE  SECRE- 
TARYSHIP 

"What  shall  we  have  therefore?"  is  an 
insistent  question,  even  with  unselfish 
men.  It  pressed  for  an  answer  even  with 
the  men  who  were  considered  good  enough 
to  be  invited  by  Jesus  to  join  him  in  the 
organization  and  direction  of  the  initial 
impact  of  Christianity  on  the  world. 

Following  the  Master's  example,  we 
will  not  evade  this  question;  but,  in 
seeking  to  answer  it,  we  will,  like  him  also, 
put  the  more  important  considerations 
first.  Jesus  assumed  and  taught  that 
the  man  who  sought  the  higher  things  in 
life  and  service  would  insure  the  second- 
ary things  to  the  limit  of  his  need;  but 
that  the  man  who  put  the  lower  things 
first  would  lose  the  higher.  The  funda- 
mental principle  is,  "your  heavenly  Fa- 
ther knoweth  that  ye  have  need  of  these 


COMPENSATIONS  6S 

things,"  and  "the  laborer  is  worthy  of 
his  hire." 

The  important  thing  was,  and  is,  that 
the  man  should  fit  his  calling,  that  he 
should  choose  the  work  in  which  he  would 
find  and  do  the  will  of  God  for  his  life. 
Given  the  right  man  in  the  right  place, 
working  with  God,  and  the  **hire,"  or 
compensation,  is  sure.  What  is  the 
" hire "  of  the  Secretaryship?  Here  again, 
as  in  considering  the  functions  of  the 
Secretaryship,  we  are  helped  by  observing 
the  nature  and  opportunity  of  the  Asso- 
ciation work,  of  which  the  Secretary  is 
the  executive. 

1.  It  is  a  Christian  work  and,  as  such, 
is  included  in  the  original  assurance  of 
Christ  that  "he  that  reapeth  receiveth 
wages  and  gathereth  fruit  unto  life  eter- 
nal." 

Re-read  the  record  of  the  incident  as 
given  in  John  4  : 1-36,  and  note  the  con- 
ditions under  which  these  words  were 
spoken.  Consider  the  Master,  spent, 
hungry,  but  forgetting  everything  in  the 
joy  of  "reaping,"  illustratmg  in  his  own 


64      ASSOCIATION  SECRETARYSHIP 

experience  the  "wages"  he  promised  the 
men  who  would  reap  with  him  in  his 
"harvest."  Among  the  high  places  in 
human  experience,  this  is  one  of  the  very- 
highest.  Can  there  be  anything  greater 
or  more  satisfying  than  the  exaltation  of 
spirit,  with  its  sense  of  value  and  achieve- 
ment, of  which  Jesus  was  conscious  when 
he  invited  these  comparatively  inexpe- 
rienced men  to  give  themselves  wholly  to 
Christian  work?  There  was  something 
closely  approximating  this  when,  as  re- 
corded in  Luke  10:  17-24,  "the  seventy 
returned  again  with  joy."  They  were 
receiving  the  "wages"  of  their  first  great 
adventure  in  Christian  work,  and  "in 
that  hour  Jesus  rejoiced  in  spirit,"  and 
they  had  a  double  wage,  their  own  ex- 
perience of  joy  and  the  consciousness  of 
having  rejoiced  the  heart  of  the  Master. 

But  we  must  not  lose  sight  of  that  other 
compensation  promised  by  Christ,  in  ad- 
dition to  the  joy,  or  present  satisfaction 
in  doing  Christian  work,  namely,  that 
the  reaper  would  achieve  a  ^permanent 
result,    would    gather    "fruit    unto    life 


COMPENSATIONS  « 

eternal,^'  Christian  work  deals  with 
personality  and  character,  imperishable 
substances,  and  it  brings  to  bear  upon 
them  the  transforming  and  vitalizing 
forces  of  the  Gospel.  The  joy  of  the 
achievement,  satisfying  as  that  may  be, 
is  not  so  important  as  the  assurance  that 
one  has  accomplished  something  per- 
manent, as  well  as  beneficent. 

9>.  It  is  a  work  of  many  friendships. 
The  man  with  a  million  dollars,  or  a 
great  reputation,  and  no  friends,  is  poorer 
than  the  man  who  has  friends,  but  is 
living  in  poverty  and  obscurity.  Friend- 
ship is  a  compensation  in  itself,  and  is 
well  worth  estimating  when  one  is  mak- 
ing his  choice  of  a  life  work. 

A  college  man,  who  a  short  time  before 
had  given  up  an  assured  future  in  engi- 
neering to  make  a  trial  of  the  Association 
Secretaryship,  reported  it  as  a  discovery 
that  "in  Association  work,  results  are 
obtained  not  at  the  expense  of  others, 
but  simply  by  helping  others." 

3.  It  is  a  work  of  rich  and  broad  fellow- 
ships.    Fellowship  in  service  is  a  stronger 


66      ASSOCIATION  SECRETARYSHIP 

and  richer  experience  than  friendship, 
for  it  is  friendship  shot  through  with 
service  and  glorified  by  sacrifice.  In  the 
Association  work,  a  Secretary  has  fellow- 
ship wdth  the  choicest  spirits,  the  strong- 
est and  most  unselfish  personalities  of  the 
community,  and  this  is  one  of  the  com- 
pensations of  his  office.  The  strongest 
business  and  professional  men,  ministers 
and  laymen,  are  deeply  mterested  in  the 
well-being  of  young  men  and  boys  and 
greatly  appreciate  the  work  of  the  Asso- 
ciation and  the  Association  Secretary,  in 
their  behalf. 

If  a  Secretary  proves  himself  worthy  of 
their  confidence,  they  will  support  him 
to  the  limit.  In  fact,  the  theory  of  the 
Association  is  that  the  work  is  theirs 
rather  than  his.  That  is  what  the  word 
"Association"  means,  and  if  the  Secre- 
tary acts  on  this  principle,  these  men  will 
take  initiative  and  responsibility  in  the 
work  of  the  Association,  and  feel  that  the 
Secretary  has  placed  them  under  obliga- 
tion in  making  such  a  work  possible. 
They  regard  him  as  the  honored  and 


COMPENSATIONS  67 

trusted  leader  of  a  community  movement, 
who  could  probably  have  made  a  fortune 
in  business  or  a  name  in  professional  or 
political  life,  if  he  had  chosen  to  do  so, 
but  who  has  consecrated  his  talents  to 
higher  uses. 

Such  fellowship  in  service  is  a  mighty 
factor  in  a  Secretary's  life,  and  a  stim- 
ulus to  help  him  to  live  and  work  at  his 
best. 

4,  It  is  a  work  that  offers  almost  un- 
limited opportunity  for  achievement.  The 
Association  is  organized  for  work  rather 
than  for  discussion,  and  the  Hon.  John 
Wanamaker  says  that  it  *'has  a  patent  on 
opportunity." 

The  Secretary  is  the  builder  and  execu- 
tive of  the  Association,  as  Kitchener  and 
Joflfre  were  the  builders  and  the  execu- 
tives of  armies.  The  work  of  one  man  is 
limited;  but,  if  that  man  is  an  organizer 
and  builds  and  works  with  and  through  an 
Association,  the  Association  can  do  any- 
thing that  the  one  man  can  plan  for  it  and 
persuade  it  to  undertake. 

There  is  a  great  joy  in  achievement. 


68      ASSOCIATION  SECRETARYSHIP 

Like  friendship,  it  is  a  compensation  in 
itself.  "The  reward  of  work  is  more 
work,"  and  the  man  of  deeds,  rather 
than  dreams,  "rejoices  Uke  a  strong  man 
to  run  a  race,"  in  overcoming  the  seem- 
ingly insurmountable  and  achieving  the 
hitherto  impossible.  This  is  life  in  its 
fullness  and  the  greatest  of  its  satisfac- 
tions. 

The  Association  is  "just  getting  its 
stride, "  and  no  man  has  yet  been  able  to 
carry  it  to  the  limit  of  its  possibilities. 
It  is  a  "world  power,"  and,  as  such,  is 
laying  the  foundations  of  a  new  social 
and  religious  order,  not  only  in  North 
America,  but  in  the  Orient,  the  Levant, 
Latin  America,  and  Europe.  If  a  man  has 
a  capacity  for  empire  building,  the  Asso- 
ciation work  would  interest  him,  and, 
after  interesting,  it  would  hold  him,  for 
he  would  never  be  conscious  of  a  finished 
task. 

5.  Concerning  salaries:  of  the  4,401 
Secretaries  and  Assistants  in  Association 
work  January  1,  1916,  the  salaries  were 
as  follows: 


COMPENSATIONS  69 

Average  for  all  Secretaries  and  Assistants.  .$1,381 

Group  A.     502.  or  11  per  cent,  from    $180  to    $600 
Averaged  $510 

Group  B.  1,311,  or  30  per  cent,  from    $600to$l,200 
Averaged  $900 

Group  C.  1 ,289,  or  29  per  cent,  from  $1,200  to  $1,500 
Averaged  $1,300 

Group  D.  1,041,  or  24  per  cent,  from  $1,500  to  $2,500 
Averaged  $1,952 

Group  E.     258,  or  6  per  cent,  from  $2,500  to  $9,000 
Averaged  $3,083 

Groups  A  and  B  are  composed  chiefly 
of  first  and  second  year  Assistants  in 
local  Associations,  of  whom  there  were 
1,501  m  1916. 

In  Group  C  are  the  younger  Secretaries 
in  their  first  fields,  or  first,  second  and 
third  years  in  responsible  positions  as 
department  executives. 

Groups  D  and  E  are  the  goals  at  which 
every  young  Secretary  expects  to  arrive, 
and  to  which  30  per  cent  of  the  men  in 
Association  service  for  two  or  more  years 
have  already  attained. 

1.  Is  it  proper  to  inquire  as  to  the  com- 
pensation of  the  Secretaryship  be- 


70     ASSOCIATION  SECRETARYSHIP 

fore  committing  oneself  to  this  call- 
ing? 

2.  In    choosing    their  life   work,    how 

many  men  seek  a  calling  in  which 
they  can  create  Christian  char- 
acter in  others?  Are  those  who  so 
choose  ill  advised?  Defend  your 
opinion. 

3.  To  what  extent  is  the  opportunity 

of  making  friends  an  attractive 
feature  of  a  calling? 

4.  Into  what  sort  of  fellowship  does  the 

Secretaryship  bring  one? 

5.  What  effect  does  this  sort  of  fellow- 

ship have  on  a  man's  efficiency? 

6.  Does  Association  work  offer  a  man  a 

chance  to  have  a  hand  in  the  doing 
of  big  things?     How? 

7.  What  limits  of  achievement  are  found 

in  the  Secretaryship? 

8.  Have  you  ever  seen  a  man  with  more 

talent  than  he  could  use  as  a  Sec- 
retary? 

9.  With  what  other  callings  does  the 

Secretaryship  compare  in  the  mat- 
ter of  salary? 


COMPENSATIONS  71 

10.  How  much  income  does  an  educated 

man  need? 

11.  Does  the  Secretaryship  pay  "a  liv- 

ing wage"  for  capable  and  educated 
men? 


CHAPTER  VIII 

PREPARATION  FOR  THE  SECRETARY- 
SHIP 

The  Young  Men's  Christian  Associa- 
tion offers  to  its  employed  executives, 
who  are  quaUfied  and  prepared,  a  life 
work  of  achievement,  usefulness,  and 
compensation. 

^.  Here  is  a  great  organization — Christian, 
social,  athletic,  educational — with  a  world 
outlook  and  world  recognition.  It  con- 
tinues to  grow  in  extent  and  content, 
since  it  is  founded  on  the  fundamental 
needs  and  undeveloped  possibilities  of 
young  men  and  boys.  It  is  progressive 
and  constructive,  is  highly  specialized, 
and  is  calling  for  permanent  executives. 

The  functions  of  the  executive  office 
in  the  Association  are  the  marks  and  to- 
kens of  a  great  profession,  and  call,  or 
wait,  for  the  man  of  corresponding  ca- 
pacity  and  versatility.     If  this  man  is 

72 


PREPARATION  7S 

looking  for  a  life  career  in  the  Secretary- 
ship, special  preparation  is  required. 

First  in  importance,  however,  is  the 
discovery  of  the  man  who  fits  the  pro- 
fession, and  the  discovery  by  that  man  of 
the  Secretaryship  as  the  profession  in 
which  he  can  probably  render  his  greatest 
life  service  and  give  fullest  expression  to 
his  major  or  most  characteristic  qualifica- 
tions. 

Let  us  therefore  consider: 

1.  Who  Should  be  Encouraged  to 
Prepare  for  the  Secretaryship? 

Association  leaders  are  in  agreement 
that  the  candidate  for  the  Secretaryship 
should  have  the  following  qualifications: 

a.  Good  health  and  an  attractive  per- 
sonality. 

b.  Ability  to  make  and  hold  friends, 
ability  to  cooperate  with  others, 
and  freedom  from  marked  eccen- 
tricities in  habit,  manner,  and  ap- 
pearance. 

c.  Sound  business  sense  and  good 
judgment,  with  executive  ability, 
initiative,  and  tact. 


74      ASSOCIATION  SECRETARYSHIP 

d.  A  liberal  education,  preferably  a 
college  course,  or  its  equivalent, 
with  willingness  to  take  whatever 
special  vocational  training  and  ex- 
perience may  be  necessary  for  ex- 
ecutive leadership  in  the  general  or 
departmental  work  of  the  Secre- 
taryship on  which  he  may  plan  to 
specialize. 

e.  Loyal  membership  in  an  evangelical 
church,  with  strong  Christian  char- 
acter and  convictions,  religious  lead- 
ership, a  sacrificial  purpose,  and 
ability  to  help  young  men  and  boys 
religiously. 

f .  Freedom  from  the  least  suggestion 
of  moral  delinquency,  such  as  any 
form  of  self-indulgence,  sex  weak- 
ness, or  unreliability  in  financial 
matters.  It  is  absolutely  essential 
that  an  Association  leader,  because 
of  his  close  relations  with  boys  and 
young  men,  should  be  morally 
above  reproach. 

2.  Why  Prepare  for  the  Secretary- 
ship? 


PREP.\RATION  75 

To  build  a  true  and  abiding  type  of 
Association  work,  the  plan  must  be  true 
to  the  perspective  of  Association  history; 
the  foundation  must  be  laid  in  tested 
Association  principles,  and  the  builder 
must  be  inspired  and  sustained  by  the 
genuine  Association  spirit. 

The  modern  City  Association  is  the 
survival  of  the  fittest  of  a  multitude  of 
experiments,  failures,  and  partial  suc- 
cesses, and  the  product  of  specialization 
in  more  than  a  thousand  cities.  The  type 
of  Association  work  which  was  fairly 
successful  fifteen  years  ago  is  obsolete  to- 
day. The  Associations  are  a  chain  of 
aflSliated  laboratories,  whose  experiments, 
resulting  in  discoveries,  have  been  in- 
corporated and  perpetuated  in  the  ap- 
proved plans,  efficient  organization,  and 
successful  methods  of  the  modern  achiev- 
ing Association.  The  executive  officer  of 
a  modern  Association,  therefore,  must 
have  the  knowledge  and  skill  of  a  techni- 
cal expert,  which  can  be  acquired  only 
by  special  study,  training,  and  experi- 
ence. 


76     ASSOCIATION  SECRETARYSHIP 

To  insure  a  life  career  in  any  calling, 
one  needs  to  take  his  profession  seriously; 
and  to  assume  that  one  can  safely  under- 
take the  executive  leadership  of  a  modern 
Association  without  special  preparation 
is  to  underestimate  the  Association  and 
practically  to  make  provision  for  a  brief 
and  disappointing  experience. 

From  the  point  of  view  of  the  Associa- 
tion, the  interests  at  stake  have  now  be- 
come too  important  to  justify  their  com- 
mitment to  uninformed,  untrained,  or 
inexperienced  leadership.  The  man  of 
ability,  without  preparation,  would  doubt- 
less succeed  in  building  something — ^but 
that  something  might  only  slightly  re- 
semble, or  might  even  caricature,  the 
Yoimg  Men's  Christian  Association. 

To  prepare  men  for  and  in  the  Secre- 
taryship, the  Association  Movement  has 
developed  a  comprehensive  training  pro- 
gram, including  thoroughgoing  profes- 
sional school  preparation.  It  provides 
also,  in  the  Assistant  Secretaryship,  op- 
portunity for  acquiring  experience  before 
assuming  the  responsibility  of  an  execu- 


PREPARATION  77 

live  position,  or  before  entering  upon  a 
course  of  professional  training  for  the 
Secretaryship  as  a  life  work. 

3.  How  Prepare  for  the  Secre- 
taryship? 

There  are  three  approved  training 
agencies  of  the  Young  Men's  Christian 
Association  and  one  apprenticeship  op- 
portunity in  preparation  for  the  Secre- 
taryship: 

a.  The  Association  Professional  Col- 
leges. 

b.  The  Association  Summer  Schools. 

c.  The  Association  Training  Centers 
established  in  leading  Associations. 

d.  The  Assistant  Secretaryship  in  some 
Associations. 

a.  The  Association  Professional  Col- 
leges 

The  standard  professional  training  for 
the  Association  Secretaryship,  expressed 
in  resolutions  of  representative  Associa- 
tion Conventions  and  Conferences,  is  that 
afiForded  by  the  two  Association  Colleges 
located  at  Springfield,  Mass.,  and  Chica- 
go, 111.    Here  in  an  orderly  and  compre- 


78     ASSOCIATION  SECRETARYSHIP 

hensive  way  the  entrant  upon  the  Asso- 
ciation Secretaryship  may  lay  a  broad 
foundation  for  his  professional  career. 
Each  college  has  a  modern  equipment 
with  a  strong  faculty  and  is  conducted 
in  accordance  with  the  best  ideas  and 
progressive  methods  of  modem  educa- 
tion. 

While  there  are  certain  common  ele- 
ments in  their  curricula,  yet  each  college 
has  individuality,  developed  through  its 
history,  traditions,  the  personality  of  its 
faculty,  its  student  body,  and  the  influ- 
ence of  its  alumni. 

The  Springfield  College  offers  a  four- 
year  course  combining  cultural  with  voca- 
tional preparation.  Graduates  of  regular 
academic  colleges  are  given  credit  for 
work  done,  by  which  the  course  may  be 
completed  in  two  years. 

The  Chicago  College,  in  addition  to 
its  three-year  regular  course,  is  placing 
emphasis  on  its  two-year  graduate  course 
and  is  also  so  affiliated  with  some  of  the 
Middle  West  academic  colleges  and  uni- 
versities as  to  make  possible  a  five-year 


PREPARATION  79 

coordinated  course  leading  to  both  *  aca- 
demic and  professional  degrees. 

Both  colleges  enrol  only  students  who 
have  completed  at  least  high  school 
courses. 

A  candidate  for  the  Secretaryship 
should  fully  inform  himself  as  to  the 
courses  of  instruction  offered  by  the  Asso- 
ciation Colleges,  and  advise  with  his 
State  Recruiting  Committee,  the  Secre- 
tarial Bureau  of  the  International  Com- 
mittee, or  a  representative  of  an  Asso- 
ciation College  as  to  his  personal  prob- 
lems. 

b.    The  Association  Summer  Schools 

The  oldest  of  these  schools  is  located  at 
Lake  Geneva,  Wis.,  and  was  started  in 
1884.  The  largest  is  the  Eastern  Associa- 
tion School  at  Silver  Bay,  on  Lake 
George,  N.  Y.  Other  schools  are  con- 
ducted at  Black  Mountain,  N.  C,  Estes 
Park,  Colo.,  Lake  Couchiching,  Ont., 
Arundel,  Md.,  Asilomar,  Cal.,  and  Sea- 
beck,  Wash.  The  aggregate  annual  enrol- 
ment exceeds  1,200  men. 
^    The  Smnmer  School  teachers  are,  for 


80     ASSOCIATION  SECRETARYSHIP 

the  most  part,  Association  leaders  and 
Secretaries — ^men  who  are  dealing  with 
the  actual  problems  of  work  with  young 
men  and  boys  in  their  respective  fields. 
The  instruction  is,  therefore,  of  high 
practical  value. 

The  student  body  is  composed  mainly 
of  three  groups  of  men:  younger  Secre- 
taries and  assistants,  young  men  who 
desire  to  investigate  the  Association  vo- 
cation, and  older  Secretaries  who  come 
for  advanced  work  and  to  keep  in  touch 
with  the  progress  of  the  Association 
Movement.  The  courses  leading  to  a 
certificate  require  three  summers'  attend- 
ance of  two  weeks  or  four  weeks  each  for 
completion. 

The  Summer  Schools  also  offer  an  un- 
usual opportunity  to  become  acquainted 
with  Association  leaders  and  with  the 
Association  spirit.  Probably  the  greatest 
value  of  these  Summer  Schools  is  not 
in  the  classroom  work,  helpful  and 
stimulating  as  that  is,  but  in  the  in- 
spiration that  comes  from  contact  and 
fellowship  with  the  Association  leaders. 


PREPARATION  81 

The  training  afforded  in  the  Summer 
Schools  is  regarded  as  secondary  to  that 
provided  by  the  Association  Colleges  and 
should  stimulate  and  prepare  men  to 
secure  for  themselves  a  standard  course 
of  professional  training  whenever  this  is 
possible. 

c.    The  Association  Training  Centers 

Some  forty  of  the  leading  American 
and  Canadian  Associations  have  devel- 
oped a  local  program  of  class  instruction, 
systematic  coaching,  and  varied  experi- 
ence for  their  assistants  and  younger 
Secretaries.  It  is  to  be  expected  that 
many  beginners  in  the  work  will  find  in 
these  Training  Centers  the  stimulus  to 
avail  themselves  of  the  more  fundamental 
and  technical  instruction  offered  by  the 
Association  Colleges. 

This  Training  Center  Movement  paral- 
lels within  the  Young  Men's  Christian 
Association  the  modem  plan  of  training 
executives  on  the  apprenticeship  principle 
and  understudy  plan,  extensively  used  by 
leading  American  transportation,  man- 
ufacturing, and  commercial  corporations 


82     ASSOCIATION  SECRETARYSHIP 

— such  as  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad, 
Western  Electric  Company,  and  National 
City  Bank. 

The  Training  Center  period  extends 
over  two  years.  Associations  conducting 
such  work  are  referred  to  as  Training 
Centers,  and  have  formed  a  federation 
for  the  standardizing,  progressive  develop- 
ment, and  extension  of  their  work. 

d.    The  Assistant  Secretaryship 

The  extraordinarily  rapid  growth  of 
the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association 
Movement  has  in  many  cases  made  neces- 
sary the  filling  of  the  ranks  of  the  Assist- 
ant Secretaryship  with  the  most  available 
men,  the  majority  of  whom  are  employed 
for  specific  tasks,  without  special  ref- 
erence to  their  possession  of  the  distinc- 
tive qualifications  for  a  life  work  in  the 
Secretaryship. 

With  this  in  mind,  the  fact  that  many 
men  have  found  the  Assistant  Secretary- 
ship an  open  door  to  the  Secretaryship 
constitutes  both  a  menace  and  a  promise 
for  the  future  leadership  of  the  Associa- 
tion Movement, 


PREPARATION  83 

Standard  Associations — tliat  is,  those 
Associations  with  a  modem,  well-devel- 
oped type  of  work — are  now  discouraged 
from  filling  any  assistant  positions  on 
their  staffs  with  men  who  do  not  give 
promise  of  real  secretarial  leadership,  or 
who  are  not  looking  forward  to  a  life 
work  in  the  Secretaryship;  and  they  are 
urged  to  cooperate  in  filling  such  positions 
with  men  of  demonstrated  business  abil- 
ity and  experience,  or  with  college  grad- 
uates possessing  the  fundamental  quali- 
fications for  the  Secretaryship.  They 
are  also  advised  to  encourage  and  aid 
assistants  of  promise  to  secure  a  course  of 
professional  training  before  assuming  the 
responsibilities  of  an  executive  position  in 
the  Secretaryship. 

1.  What   facts   about   the   Association 

justify  preparation  for  the  Secre- 
taryship? 

2.  What  bearing  has  each  of  the  follow- 

ing qualities  upon   fitness  for  the 
Secretaryship? 
a.  Health 


84      ASSOCIATION  SECRETARYSHIP 

b.  Ability    to    cooperate    with 

others 

c.  Business  sense 

d.  Education 

e.  Rehgious  leadership 

f .  Fine  moral  character 

3.  Show  wherein  Association  work  is  suf- 

ficiently technical  to  require  special 
preparation  for  the  Secretaryship. 

4.  Why  are  Association  directors  justi- 

fied in  preferring  trained  executives 
for  Association  positions? 

5.  How  much  and  what  sort  of  training 

should  these  executives  have? 

6.  Discuss  the  Association  professional 

college  as  a  training  agency. 

7.  What  sort  of  secretarial  training  can 

be  secured  in  Association  Summer 
Schools? 

8.  Where  are  the  leading  Association 

Summer  Schools? 

9.  To  what  extent  can  a  Training  Center 

fit  a  man  for  executive  leadership? 
10.  Under  what  circumstances  would  you 
adVise  men  entering  the  Secretary- 
ship to  take  an  assistant's  position? 


CHAPTER  IX 
FUTURE  OF  THE  SECRETARYSHIP 

One  does  not  need  to  be  a  prophet, 
only  an  observer,  to  predict  a  future  for 
the  Association  Secretaryship.  The  As- 
sociation is  sound  in  principle,  unique 
in  method,  adaptable  in  character,  uni- 
versal in  application,  and  practically  un- 
limited in  its  field. 

The  future  of  the  Secretaryship  depends 
on  the  Secretary,  The  Secretaryship  has 
but  one  serious  limitation,  and  that  is  in 
the  man  who  attempts  it.  Some  men 
have  no  future.  If  these  men  become 
Secretaries,  of  course  there  is  no  future 
for  the  Secretaryship.  But,  where  the 
call  of  the  Secretaryship  is  heard  by  the 
men  who  fit  the  calling,  the  Secretaryship 
of  the  future  will  be  a  place  of  apostolic 
opportunity. 

The  future  of  the  Secretaryship  will  he 
in   the   direction   of  standardization   and 

85 


86     ASSOCIATION  SECRETARYSHIP 

efficiency.  In  the  ten  years,  1906-1916, 
more  than  one  thousand  major  secretarial 
positions,  paying  salaries  of  $1,200  or 
more,  were  vacated  by  men  leaving  the 
Association  work.  The  majority  of  these 
men  left  the  Secretaryship  because  the 
rising  standards  and  intensive  develop- 
ment of  the  Association  work  created  or 
accentuated  requirements  in  leadership 
and  administration,  for  which  they  were 
not  equal.  This  is  not  a  symptom  of 
weakness,  but  an  evidence  of  strength  in 
the  Association,  and  a  challenge  to  the 
strongest  type  of  men  to  undertake  a 
work  which  average  men  have  found  to 
be  impossible. 

The  future  of  the  Secretaryship  will  be 
in  the  direction  of  its  missionary  outreach. 
The  greater  part  of  the  field  for  Associa- 
tion work  is  still  unoccupied. 

1.  In  North  America 

The  City  Associations,  now  organized  in 
less  than  seven  hundred  cities,  should  be 
extended  into  four  hundred  of  the  more 
than  six  hundred  "unoccupied"  cities; 
and  in  fifty  Association  cities  of  more 


FUTURE  87 

than  100,000  population,  one  hundred 
"Branch"  Associations  should  be  organ- 
ized, with  buildings  and  Secretaries,  in 
the  next  ten  years. 

The  County  Association  Work,  operating 
in  the  rural,  town,  and  village  field,  and 
now  being  carried  on  in  only  about  one 
hundred  counties,  should  be  extended 
into  at  least  five  hundred  counties  in  the 
next  ten  years.  There  are  about  three 
thousand  counties  in  the  United  States 
and  Canada,  of  which  at  least  fifteen 
hundred  are  "  organizable "  for  the  Asso- 
ciation work,  each  with  one  or  more  Asso- 
ciation County  Secretaries. 

The  Boys*  Work  Division  of  the  City 
Associations,  with  its  specialization  in 
"BuUding,"  "High  School"  and  "Com- 
munity" Work,  and  employing  about 
500  Boys'  Work  Secretaries,  and  the 
Industrial  Associations,  now  employing 
three  hundred  Secretaries,  should  treble 
their  work  and  secretarial  staflFs  in  ten 
years.  Even  then,  they  would  not  have 
occupied  one-half  of  the  fields  that  are 
ripe  for  organization. 


88     ASSOCIATION  SECRETARYSHIP 

2.  On  the  Foreign  Field 

The  North  American  Associations  have 
responded  to  the  call  of  the  young  men  of 
Asia  and  of  Latin  America  by  sending 
out  and  supporting  on  the  Association 
foreign  field  two  hundred  missionary 
Secretaries.  This  work  will  be  continued 
and  extended,  perhaps  doubled  in  the  next 
ten  years. 

The  work  carried  on  also  by  the  North 
American  Associations  through  their  hun- 
dreds of  Secretaries  in  the  training  camps, 
on  the  battle-fields,  and  in  the  prison 
camps  of  Europe  and  ''East  of  Suez"  is 
another  expression  of  the  Association's 
spirit  of  world  brotherhood  and  outreach. 
In  this  War  Work  of  the  American  Asso- 
ciations, Christ  is  being  interpreted  to 
millions  of  young  men  in  their  hour  of 
greatest  need,  in  terms  of  service  and  of 
friendship — a  language  which  all  can 
understand.  The  response  will  be  seen 
in  the  period  of  reconstruction  after  the 
war,  as  a  factor  to  be  reckoned  with  in 
the  future  of  the  Association  movement 
and  of  the  Secretaryship. 


FUTURE  89 

The  world  vision  and  the  spirit  of  sacri- 
fice are  a  part  of  the  content  of  the  idea 
of  the  Association  Secretaryship,  and  men 
of  the  heroic  type  will  increasmgly  press 
into  the  Secretaryship,  as  they  recognize 
that  the  Association  is  in  fact  a  world 
brotherhood,  at  work  on  the  personal  and 
social  program  of  Jesus  Christ  and  in  the 
spirit  and  power  of  the  Gospel. 

The  future  of  the  Secretaryship  will  he  in 
proportion  to  its  religious  passion.  The 
initial  motive  and  driving  power  of  the 
Association  was  a  dominant  religious 
passion,  and  every  forward  step  in  the 
progress  of  the  Association  movement 
can  be  traced  to  the  religious  impulse. 
Where  this  religious  motive  becomes  a 
spent  force,  the  Association  halts  in  the 
face  of  opportunity  and  either  dies,  or, 
while  living  on  the  momentum  of  its  past, 
fails  to  achieve  the  object  which  justifies 
its  existence. 

The  future  of  the  Secretaryship,  therefore, 
is  in  the  realm  of  religious  achievement, 
possible  only  to  men  who  possess  and  are 
possessed  by  the  dominant  religious  motive. 


90     ASSOCIATION  SECRETARYSHIP 

The  Secretary  of  the  future  will  be  a  man 
in  whom  this  motive  has  become  a  master 
passion,  who  hesitates  at  nothing  and 
achieves  the  impossible,  for  all  things 
are  his. 

He  has  chosen  unselfishly  and  without 
reservation  to  do  what  he  had  reason  to 
believe  was  the  will  of  God  for  his  life; 
he  has  proved  by  experience  that  this 
will  is  "good  and  acceptable";  and  he 
knows  that  before  him  is  the  work  and 
with  him  are  the  boundless  resources  of 
God. 

1.  Upon  whom  does  the  future  of  the 

Secretaryship  depend  ?     Why  ? 

2.  What  fact  in  the  Secretaryship  has 

caused  a  number  of  men  to  drop 
out,  and  how  is  this  an  encourage- 
ment to  strong  men? 

3.  What  promise  of  a  future  is  there  in 

a  city  Secretaryship? 

4.  In  the  rural  Secretaryship? 

5.  In  other  branches  of  the  calling? 

6.  What  sort  of  man  should  enter  the 


FUTURE  91 

foreign  work,  from  the  point  of 
view  of  the  future  it  oflFers? 
What  bearing  has  the  evangelistic 
spirit  upon  the  future  of  the  Sec- 
retaryship? 


CHAPTER  X 

HOW  TO  ENTER  THE  SECRETARY- 
SHIP 

For  the  man  who  has  chosen  the  Secre- 
taryship as  his  Ufe  work,  and  entered  an 
Association  College  for  his  professional 
training,  the  way  opens  naturally,  on 
graduation,  into  that  form  of  Association 
work  for  which  he  is  prepared. 

Doubtless  an  increasing  number  of 
young  men,  particularly  those  who  have 
been  developed  as  older  boy  leaders  in 
the  Association  Boys'  Work,  j;vill  prac- 
tically choose  the  Secretaryship  as  their 
profession  before  entering  college,  or 
early  in  their  college  course.  These  men 
will  go  forward  into  the  Association  Col- 
leges, in  preparation  for  their  chosen  pro- 
fession, as  others  go  into  the  medical, 
theological,  law,  and  engineering  schools. 

To  many  men,  however,  the  suggestion 
of  the  Secretaryship  will  come  as  an  invi- 

92 


HOW  TO  ENTER  93 

tation  to  consider  a  work  about  which 
they  have  known  little  or  nothing  from 
personal  experience  or  observation.  The 
suggestion  will  come  also  to  men  of  abil- 
ity, who,  while  attracted  to  the  Associa- 
tion, are  not  sure  of  themselves  as  to  their 
snecial  adaptation  to  a  work  of  this  kind. 
How  can  these  men  find  their  way  into 
the  Secretaryship? 

Three  sign  posts  mark  a  well-worn 
path,  by  which  men  who  have  evidently 
worked  with  God  have  found  their  way 
into  the  will  of  God  for  their  life  work. 

1.  Investigation.  The  work  in  question 
should  be  investigated  as  to  its  nature, 
opportunities,  and  requirements  and  its 
appeal  to  the  best  or  major  capacities  in 
the  man's  life.  The  information  and  in- 
terpretations contained  in  this  booklet 
have  been  assembled  to  facilitate  such 
an  investigation  of  the  Secretaryship. 
Attendance  at  a  conference  where  the 
work  of  the  Association  is  explained,  and 
interviews  with  Association  leaders — 
especially  representatives  of  Association 
State  Recruiting  Committees,  or  of  the 


94     ASSOCIATION  SECRETARYSHIP 

Secretarial  Bureau  of  the  International 
Committee — ^will  give  information  and 
direction. 

The  process  of  investigation,  however, 
is  mutual.  The  men  who  are  the  custo- 
dians of  the  work,  or  whose  judgment  and 
cooperation  are  essential  to  the  opening 
of  the  doors  into  it,  need  evidence  as  to 
the  qualifications  of  the  man,  as  much  as 
he  needs  to  be  assured  concerning  the 
opportunity  in  the  Secretaryship.  The 
man,  therefore,  needs  to  ofifer  himself  as 
a  candidate  in  order  that  the  facts  con- 
cerning him  may  be  ascertained,  on 
which  a  judgment  may  be  based  as  to  his 
adaptation  to  the  work. 

2.  Prayer.  Doubtless  there  will  be 
latent  or  unrecognized  capacities  in  the 
man  and  undiscovered  opportimities  in 
the  work  not  revealed  by  self -analysis  or 
investigation.  For  these  reasons,  as  well 
as  for  the  confidence  and  strength  that 
come  with  the  consciousness  that  one  is 
working  with  God,  the  man  needs  to 
commit  his  life  and  his  life  program,  with 
sincerity  and  obedience,  to  God  in  prayer 


HOW  TO  ENTER  95 

and  to  wait  confidently  on  God  for  guid- 
ance into,  or  away  from,  the  work  in  ques- 
tion. 

3.  Service.  There  is  such  a  thing  as 
"learning  by  doing."  In  the  doing  of  a 
task,  one  not  only  learns  about  the  work 
in  which  he  is  engaged,  but  discovers  in 
himself  aptitude  or  lack  of  aptitude  for  it. 
The  path  of  service,  therefore,  leads,  not 
only  to  the  place  of  observation,  but  to 
the  experience  of  self -discovery. 

There  are  many  Assistants'  positions 
in  the  Association  movement,  and  ex- 
perience in  such  positions,  in  the  well- 
organized  Associations, frequently  leads  to 
promotion  to  positions  of  responsibility  iu 
the  Secretaryship.  The  man,  therefore, 
who  has  not  "found  himself, "  may  experi- 
ment as  an  Assistant,  if  a  suitable  opening 
for  such  experimentation  may  be  found 
for  him,  such  as  is  provided  through  "The 
Fellowship  Plan."  As  a  man  "makes 
good  "  he  realizes  that  the  door  has  opened 
for  him  into  a  work  that  he  can  do,  a 
work  worth  doing,  and  that  brings  with 
it  the  joy  of  achievement.    He  is  then  in 


96      ASSOCIATION  SECRETARYSHIP 

position  to  understand  the  experience  of 
"the  seventy"  hitherto  inexperienced 
disciples,  whom  Jesus  sent  out  and  who 
"returned  again  with  joy  saying,  Lord, 
even  the  devils  are  subject  unto  us 
through  thy  name." 

College  graduates  who  are  not  con- 
vinced as  to  their  call  to  the  Association 
Secretaryship  as  a  life  work,  or  who  are 
unable  to  enter  at  once  upon  a  graduate 
course  of  professional  training  in  an  Asso- 
ciation College,  may  be  related,  through 
"The  Fellowship  Plan,"  to  a  selected 
Association  for  experience  and  training. 
This  includes  a  diversified  experience, 
with  coaching  and  such  instruction  as 
may  be  given  in  the  Training  Center  and 
Summer  School  courses.  The  initial  com- 
pensation covers  living  expenses,  and  in- 
crease and  promotion  come  as  the  Fellow- 
ship man  "makes  good." 

The  Plan  is  offered  as  an  accommodation 
for  college  men  who,  without  it,  might 
not  be  able  even  to  investigate  the  Sec- 
retaryship. It  is  hoped  that  the  Fellow- 
ship  experience,  in  not  a  few  instances, 


HOW  TO  ENTER  97 

will  lead  to  graduate  study  in  further 
and  more  fundamental  preparation  for 
the  Secretaryship,  such  as  may  be  ob- 
tained in  one  of  the  Association  Colleges. 
To  the  man  who,  "following  the  gleam" 
on  the  path  to  the  will  of  God,  finds  his 
way  into  the  Association  Secretaryship, 
there  opens  out  a  great  life  work,  full  of 
opportunities  for  practical  service,  and 
with  constant  stimulus  to  self-improve- 
ment. Such  a  life  will  be  rich  in  friend- 
ship, distinguished  by  leadership,  unique 
in  achievement,  abounding  with  satis- 
faction, and  filled  with  the  consciousness 
of  the  companionship  of  God. 

1.  What    is   the    standard    method   of 

professional  training  for  the  Secre- 
taryship when  a  man  knows  this  is 
to  be  his  calling? 

2.  By  what  means  may  a  man  investi- 

gate the  Secretaryship? 

3.  How  may  a  man  himself  be  investi- 

gated as  to  his  fitness  for  the 
Secretaryship? 

4.  What  may  be  expected  of  prayer 


98     ASSOCIATION  SECRETARYSHIP 

while  considering  entering  Associa- 
tion work? 

5.  Under  what  circumstances,  or  con- 

ditions, can  service  help  a  man  to 
"find  himself"  and  his  work? 

6.  What  is  the  Fellowship  Plan  and  in 

what  particulars  does  it  differ  from 
an  ordinary  Assistant  Secretary- 
ship? 

7.  You  have  read  a  careful  presenta- 

tion of  the  Secretaryship  and  now 
what  action  will  you  take?  What 
are  you  going  to  do  about  it? 

8.  To  you  who  are  already  employed 

officers  of  the  Association:  how 
can  you  use  the  facts  and  ideas 
here  presented? 

9.  Where  can  the  men  be  found  who 

measure  up  to  the  standard  of  the 
Secretaryship  here  presented,  and 
how  may  these  considerations  be 
brought  to  their  attention? 


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